


We'll Never Walk in Light

by gravitropism



Series: Beating Heart [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Blood and Violence, M/M, Mentions of SHINee, Vampires, Violence, Werewolves, Zombies, just a bit, nano2k16, oh my, there's a lil bit of sexy time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-22 18:25:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 56,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10702593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gravitropism/pseuds/gravitropism
Summary: Kyungsoo really just wants to live his peaceful life as a vampire masquerading as a librarian. Why is that so hard?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was my nano2k16. Thank you to Max, for beta-ing and also for being literally the most important human in my life, to Brooke for being my writing buddy and pointing out all the stupid things I did, and to Dylan, for telling me to get shit done.
> 
> I hope you like my baby. The rest will be posted once I finish deciding where I want the chapters to be.
> 
> Title from Beating Heart by Hydrogen Sea.

His fingers traced over the dry, cracked spines of the books in the history section. Some of these books would probably never see the light of day again. Similar to Kyungsoo himself.

Well, he could take a bit of sunlight before his skin started to blister. But only a tiny bit.

His fingers stopped at a book about the rise and fall of the Aztec empire, and he shoved the books to the side to slot a new acquisition into place. Tugging the book to the front a bit to keep the covers in line with edge of the shelf, Kyungsoo straightened smoothly from his squatting position. Finished with shelving for today. He gripped the ancient book cart and pushed it along the row of shelves towards his desk.

The wheels of the cart squeaked slightly in the quiet atmosphere of the library. He’d have to remember to grease them up a bit before he started work tomorrow.

Kyungsoo worked at a library almost as old as himself, founded back before the colonies had declared independence from England (not that he concerned himself with politics). In fact, it had been so long that he wasn’t really sure what had happened when, and who had done it. That’s what history books are for.

He himself was born in Korea, and had slowly worked his way towards Europe and then New England, perhaps sometime in the 1880’s. Chicago in the 20’s had been a real blast. All he’d had to do was switch his place of employment every now and then and he could easily go unnoticed (he’d been to college a half dozen times off and on). He liked this spot, though. He could work here for another twenty years at least. It would be nice break from all the rough and tumble of New York.

Kyungsoo pushed the cart up against his desk and carefully sat down, wary of the stack of books sitting rather close to the edge. He frowned.

“Sehun?” he called out, softly. There was a cough from a few meters into the nearest row of shelves. Oh Sehun, fellow librarian and sort-of-friend extraordinaire, strode in a blasé manner toward their shared desk.

Sehun raised an eyebrow. “Yes?” he said, and placed the book in his hand on top of the pile.

Kyungsoo fixed him in place with his medium-level glare. “Why is there a stack of books on this desk? I just finished shelving, and you find it necessary to create more mess for me to clean up?”

Sehun just waved a hand. “I’m using all of those myself. They’re not in my personal library, but I need them to reference in a paper I’m working on. Leave them there.” 

Kyungsoo used a finger to push the books back from the edge. This damned brat was lucky they worked the late shift, or he’d be getting customer complaints left and right.

“Then put them under the counter, for fuck’s sake. We don’t need them crowding up the workspace.” Sehun rolled his eyes, but strode around the desk, and lifted the pile of books under the counter. He looked down at his watch, then grabbed Kyungsoo’s shoulder and tugged. “No wonder you’re cranky. It’s time for break, let’s go eat dinner.” 

Kyungsoo grumbled, but followed after putting up a sign that proclaimed that they would be back in half an hour. He was feeling a bit thirsty, and a snack couldn’t hurt.

The pair walked down a flight of stairs to the break room on the second floor. They worked on the third floor, where the reference section was held, and at this time of day, it was only the two of them. They didn’t need very many employees, anyhow, on weekdays they might see less than five people the whole night.

The break room was empty when they arrived. Perfect timing. Meals could get a little awkward if there were others hanging around, just waiting to stick their noses into other people’s business and ask rather personal questions. Like why Kyungsoo only ever seemed to drink juice.

Yeah, “juice.” More like human blood, prepackaged and distributed by a supplier at a hospital a twenty-minute drive from Kyungsoo’s house. Not that he did the driving, that’s what a lifetime of saving and delivery boys were for. Being a 300-year-old vampire had its perks.

Kyungsoo walked over to the groaning fridge that probably should have been replaced five years ago, and opened the door. He spotted Sehun’s customary purple lunch box and tossed it to him, then swiped his own juice box from its spot crammed in the back of the fridge.

Sehun had already sat down on the old wooden table and was popping open his box. Salad, then: the sudden smell of bleu cheese dressing assaulted his nose.

“I’m not sure you realize how awful that stuff smells,” Kyungsoo complained, sitting down across from him nevertheless. “Which reminds me, please never bring anchovies for dinner again.”

Cramming a mouthful of salad into his mouth, Sehun snorted. “Well excuse me for enjoying the finer points of life. You’re missing out, you really are.”

Right. “I think you’re forgetting all that time I spent in traveling when I was younger,” Kyungsoo said. Europe had been wonderful. He had spent a lifetime flitting about, coming and going as he fancied. The art, the literature, the scenery. Occasionally, the people. He had only left because of the dominating presence of an older vampire couple who tried to control the actions of the majority population. They were a bit too conservative for his tastes, so he had moved, returning occasionally to his favorite spots and a few of his favorite people.

“That doesn’t mean you know how to enjoy life to its fullest,” Sehun said earnestly, crossing his legs and leaning in, “It’s all about making the most of what we have. Since you have longer, you don’t try and get the most you can out of each day.” Kid was always ready for an argument.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, puncturing the foil on his juice box with a straw. “I’ll take you with me the next time I go. You’ll see what I mean.” He sat back and pulled out his phone. Other elderly vampires might not use modern technology, but Kyungsoo made a point of not falling behind the times. Sehun could make as many old jokes as he wanted; however, Kyungsoo was sure that his texting rate was significantly faster than the human’s.

He took a pleasing slurp from his juice box and opened up the text message he had received from Baekhyun, something about a zombie outbreak. Fantastic. Zombies smell bad. _Does this really concern me?_ he typed back, glancing back at Sehun who was looking at him with a thoughtful expression.

“Hyung, does this mean you’ll pay for me?” Sehun asked, eyes clearly calculating. Kyungsoo used his foot to nudge him under the table, and took another long drink.

“I’ll think about it. It depends how nice you are and how I feel about you at that moment, so be good.” Yeah, he’d pay. He had the money, anyway.

“Thank you, my dearest Kyungsoo,” Sehun coos, batting his eyelashes. Kyungsoo exaggerates an eye roll and kicks Sehun under the table.

“Don’t give me that crap.”

\--

A couple weeks later Kyungsoo was deep into the shelves, trying to find a book about some obscure medical condition that a patron insisted they had (they definitely didn’t, but now Kyungsoo couldn’t say he didn’t look), when Sehun called out to him.

“Hyung! Where are you?” his voice lofted over the massive shelves, some of which required a ladder to access. Kyungsoo sighed, and took his glasses back out of his pocket. He wore them to look a little more human; if he didn’t have perfect eyesight, how could he be a vampire, right? Slipping them on (the lenses were just plain glass), he walked towards the sound of Sehun’s voice.

“What do you need? I swear, if you accidentally spilled something again, I’ll skin you alive, don’t think I won’t,” Kyungsoo complained, pointing one carefully filed-down fingernail at Sehun as he rounded the corner.

Sehun flipped him off in return. “Some guy is here, he asked for you specifically. Refused to say what he wanted. He wasn’t weird or gross, though, so it might be okay?” he said in a questioning tone, motioning for Kyungsoo to follow him back to their desk.

Stuffing his paper and pen into his back pocket, Kyungsoo reluctantly followed Sehun, wondering all the while. Why would someone want him? Unless they had realized that he had been employed at a variety of locations in the U.S. for the past 50 years, yet still looked like the day he was turned at 24, albeit with paler skin, sharper nails and teeth, and veins that didn’t quite seem to be there. That... probably wouldn’t be good. He didn’t really know too many people that Sehun didn’t also know... Maybe someone from his past?

But upon reaching the desk, Kyungsoo found that he most certainly did not know the human standing in front of him. Blood pumping fiercely through his veins, a healthy flush to his skin, and a mouth that turned up at the corners. Nope, Kyungsoo had no idea who this guy was.

The man stepped forward at the sight of him, holding a hand out to shake, “Hi, I’m Jongdae. You must be Kyungsoo, right?” he said, smiling. Kyungsoo frowned slightly, but took his hand anyway, quickly releasing it. His body temperature was significantly lower, but it would be more unusual to refuse a handshake. “I need to talk to you in private.”

Now that was strange. “If you don’t mind me asking, why?” Kyungsoo said slowly, wary of anyone who decided they were too important to talk in front of Sehun, who usually looked pretty important himself.

At this, Jongdae looked a little nervous. “I... can’t exactly say it in public, and that’s why?” He shifted his weight about, hands clasped behind his back.

Sehun leaned against the desk and made a shooing motion. “Its fine, I’ll be right here if you need me, Hyung. I’m sure you could beat him up if you wanted anyway.” Good point. This guy didn’t look particularly strong.

Kyungsoo turned and walked into the maze of shelves, tossing a, “Follow me,” behind him. He could hear Jongdae’s footsteps behind him, so he continued for a few more meters, then stopped and turned, facing the bookshelves.

“If you’re going to approach me while I’m working, you’ll have to put up with me actually doing work,” he said, starting to fix the appearance of some of the books on the shelves. “But I’m listening.” He saw Jongdae nod out of the corner of his eye.

“I know what you are,” he blurted out, his hands clenching into fists.

Kyungsoo paused. “This isn’t some movie, either get to the point or get out of my face.” He looked over. Jongdae was... laughing at him? Oh, that mother fucker, he totally faked the nervousness.

“Sorry,” Jongdae said with a chuckle, “I couldn’t help myself. But I do know that you’re a vampire.” Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes. There weren’t very many people who knew, so which one spilled?

“Are you on drugs?” Kyungsoo asked. That was usually the best way to defend against accusations. “Vampires don’t exist. Stop wasting my time.”

Jongdae frowned. “I know they do; we don’t need to argue about this.”

“Insane, then,” Kyungsoo insisted. “I have real work to do. Go away.”

Jongdae rolled his eyes and continued. “See, I had a bit of a problem a couple weeks ago: I was attacked by a group of zombies, and someone told me you could help.” Oh, hell no. He might as well give up the facade now.

“Fuck that,” Kyungsoo said succinctly, stopping his work to face Jongdae. “No way in hell am I going to kill your smelly-ass zombies. That’s so not my problem.”

Jongdae looked around, eyes wide, “I’m pretty sure you can’t say that in a library, think of all the children here.” Clearly the asshole was trying to mess with him again.

“This is the reference section. Kids can fuck off.” With that, he strode out of the shelves back to where Sehun was standing, Jongdae hurrying along behind him.

“But you’re the best person for the job! You were specifically recommended to me by an authority on the subject!”

“Yeah, and I still get to choose whether I help you or not. And I just don’t feel like it, nor do I want to waste my time.” 

“But the zombies are going to kill innocent people! Like me!” Jongdae said, a little too loud for a library.

Kyungsoo shushed him. “Look, there are other people who can do the same thing. And those other people probably accept payment, so go find one of them and give him a couple hundred and get it over with.” He pointed at the stairs. “Door is that way.”

Jongdae looked taken aback, and he slowly made his way over to the exit. Good riddance.

After he had left, Sehun voiced his opinion. “Don’t you think you could have been a little nicer? Or maybe let him explain the situation better before making a decision?”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “It may have been a little rude, but I don’t run a zombie killing business. This is the second time in the past two weeks that someone has been whining for me to kill something for them. Zombies smell, okay? And the smell stays.” He shuddered, remembering the month spent in Salem. The fucking witches thought they could subdue him with a multitude of rotten flesh. That hadn’t been fun, and the faint stench of decaying human had lingered for three months after.

“Still,” Sehun mused, “Are you actually the best person for the job? If it’s a real problem, you might want to consider taking care of it.” Kyungsoo ran a hand through his short hair and sighed.

“It really isn’t that bad, but I can’t just let people order me around. I’ve tried that, not a fan.” San Francisco. “I need a reason to do it, and ‘Jongdae’ telling me to doesn’t cut it. I don’t even know him, and besides, I might be the best, but there are certainly other people that can do the same thing. He should just go to Junmyeon.” Junmyeon was the wizard who tried to maintain the balance of supernatural beings in their area. If there was an issue, he was the one who could most easily take care of it. And as long as Kyungsoo didn’t go on a rampage, Junmyeon pretty much left him alone, which he accepted and agreed with.

Sehun thought on that for a few moments, then slowly nodded his head. “You have a good point. If Junmyeon is the one who is supposed to be taking care of it, he should just go to him. But you can’t help even a little?”

“I guess I’d do it if Junmyeon asked.”

“Would you, now?”

Kyungsoo glared at him. “It depends on how nicely he asks.”

Sehun laughed loudly in the quiet library. Kyungsoo is tempted to kick him to shut him up, but there’s nobody but them up on this floor, and their boss is a half-deaf old man who can’t climb stairs.

“Shut up, will you?”

“I guess I could do that,” Sehun said, “But I’d much rather rile you up. It’s good cure for monotony.” Kyungsoo smacked him for real this time.

Half an hour later, Sehun spoke up again. “Was Jongdae flirting with you?”

Kyungsoo turned to him slowly, face blank. “And what makes you think that?”

Sehun shrugged. “I don’t know, I just got a feeling.”

“He might have been,” Kyungsoo commented, then turned back to his work. These new books weren’t going to catalogue themselves.

“Did you ever have a relationship when you were in Europe? Or, like, ever? For the two years we’ve worked here together I’ve never seen you with anyone,” Sehun mused.

Kyungsoo’s grip tightened on the book he was holding. “I did, actually... We weren’t exactly what you would call boyfriends, but we were... together. He was another vampire, and we traveled together for about twenty years.” 

Sehun nodded slowly. “What happened? Did you break up?”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “He... Remember when I told you about the old vampire couple in Germany? The ones with the castle?” Sehun gave an affirming noise. Kyungsoo took a moment to collect his thoughts and went on. “For the last few years that I lived in the area, they decided they were the most apt to rule over the vampire population in Europe. So they went around killing everyone and anyone who opposed them. It probably had more of a negative effect, because many of the people I know hold resentment towards anyone trying to hold authority to this day. They didn’t manage to take over, but they still did quite a bit of damage.” Sehun looked like he was slowly catching on.

“My, we’ll call him my partner, was rather outspoken. Too outspoken, because their followers came one night while I was away and attacked him. He couldn’t fight them off, and by the time I got back he was ashes. I left for England the next day, and then the States a month later.”

“God, I’m sorry I asked. Shit.”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “It’s fine. I miss him, but I’ve stopped regretting and it’s been a hundred years.”

“Still,” Sehun said, and looked sheepish for once.

“Look, Sehun, if I minded I wouldn’t have talked about it. Vampires get killed all the time. That’s why you need to be scared of the old ones; you know they’ve had to kill to stay alive,” Kyungsoo explained, looking over the books sitting on the desk.

“So like you?”

Kyungsoo chuckled. “Yes, like me. Most don’t make it past a hundred.”

“Huh,” Sehun said, and went back to working. Thirty seconds later, he paused. “And you haven’t dated since then?”

“Well, no, it’s been a long time, I’m over it. I’ve dabbled around, but he was such a good match for me that I keep comparing people to him.” He had tried to date, but he couldn’t help himself. Everything the person did was sized up against his old partner. Although, it had been a while since he had tried to date again. His last was back in the 1920s... oh, and then the series of sexual escapades in San Francisco. But he doesn’t talk about that.

Sehun rested his chin on his fist. “I’m glad you’re not the type to go pining away for your lover lost long ago,” he said dramatically, tracing a pretend tear down his cheek, “I think I’d have to stop being friends with you.”

Kyungsoo snorted. “It has been a while, though. What about you? I told, now you need to fess up. I’ve seen you texting someone this past month.” He rested his palms on the desk and leaned in towards Sehun, smiling. By smiling, his long incisors were exposed, making him look a little more threatening than he might usually.

Sehun shut the cover of the book he was working on. “No need to show off your teeth. Junmyeon and I have just been talking a lot more recently, is all,” he said, trying to act demure. Bullshit, Kyungsoo knew Sehun, and this meant he was trying to get something.

“Right, we’ll see about that.”

Sehun snickered. “Oh, you’ll see.”

\--

Kyungsoo drove home as usual, fingers tapping on the steering wheel to some jazz from nearly a century ago. He didn’t need them now, but his car had tinted windows to block out the sunlight he encountered on the way to work. His shift began at noon and ended around eight, per his request. This way, he could work most of the daylight way, and had a while to mess around before the sun rose.

Sehun had got him thinking. It really had been a while since he last tried to date.

Deep in thought, he pulled into his driveway, grabbing his umbrella and sunglasses out of his car for tomorrow. After unlocking his door, he removed his jacket and took a careful seat on his favorite chair, its leather surface beginning to crack and peel.

Kyungsoo stared up at the ceiling, which he had painted bright blue himself in a fit of rage a few years ago. He rarely regretted not being able to look up at the daytime sky, but something about the oppressive white had pissed him off and he had spent a good 6 hours on a ladder creating a mockery of what he was forced to deny himself.

Maybe it was time to try again.

\--

In retrospect, Kyungsoo didn’t expect Junmyeon to actually ask him for help.

Which he did. In the form of a smiling Jongdae.

Dammit.

Kyungsoo slammed the book he was carrying down on his desk, delicacy be dammed. Jongdae was standing there again, this time with a blinding grin on his face. That couldn’t be good.

“Hi, Kyungsoo!” he said in a perky voice, too perky for this early in Kyungsoo’s day, “So Junmyeon tells me you have to help.” Jongdae rested his elbows on the desk and looked up at him, still grinning.

“What does Junmyeon want from me? Can’t he take care of this himself?” Kyungsoo asked, frustrated. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Sehun walking up the desk, interested.

Jongdae shook his head, and said, “I was attacked by a fairly large group of zombies a couple weeks ago and Junmyeon saved me. There have been a few more attacks like that one since. Junmyeon has managed to subdue them, but he can’t keep doing it, so he needs your help to stop them while he figures out what’s going on. You’re the best person for the job, after all, being invulnerable to zombie bites,” he shrugged, “Or at least that’s what Junmyeon told me last night when I went to see him.”

Kyungsoo spun around in frustration, removed his glasses, and ran hand over his face. “I really have to do this, don’t I,” he muttered, mostly to himself, “Also, how in hell do you know Junmyeon?”

“Yep! Junmyeon said to say please, so please. We went to college together, and I’ve sort of half kept in touch with him. I did know he was a wizard before in college, though, so don’t worry.”

If Kyungsoo didn’t do it, he would lose any protection Junmyeon could give him. And it was in his best interest to stay in Junmyeon’s favor. However, if he decided to kill the zombies, he’d have to deal with all the inconveniences associated with that, and he might seem like the type that could be easily pushed around. Well. Maybe not, as long as he took the stance that he was doing Junmyeon a favor. This was all really about power dynamics.

Kyungsoo turned back around slowly. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

“Yess!” Jongdae crowed, reaching over to pat Kyungsoo on the back.

“But only because Junmyeon said so.”

Jongdae nodded. “I can be okay with that. By the way, Junmyeon says that we should all meet at his house Saturday night at 6pm, can you come?” All of us? What was that supposed to mean?

Sehun stepped up to the desk. “Is this about the zombies? Can I come to the meeting?” Jongdae looked Kyungsoo, to Sehun, and back at Kyungsoo, bewildered.

Kyungsoo sighed. “Sehun knows; he does research about comparisons of mythology between different cultures, so he can come. He might actually be useful.” Sehun was actually the owner of a massive library of texts about the supernatural, something that Kyungsoo himself was lucky to have access to. The kid had inherited quite a bit of it from his parents, or something.

“Great, we’ll be there,” Sehun said, clapping his hands, “Now Jongdae, we are actually busy, so if you don’t mind...” Jongdae nodded, and waved a cheerful goodbye.

When he was gone, Kyungsoo let his head drop to the desktop. “What did I just get myself into?”

“Being a good person!”

“Oh fuck you,” Kyungsoo groaned.

\--

Saturday at the meeting Kyungsoo was disappointed to find out that Junmyeon was turning a few lousy zombies into a big deal. Upon Junmyeon opening his door, Kyungsoo was assaulted with the scents of some of his (least) favorite people.

“Kyungsoo, glad you could come,” said a harassed-looking Junmyeon, whose face blossomed into a smile upon seeing Sehun.

“Hi, Junma,” Sehun grinned back, stepping inside ahead of Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, but followed. Junmyeon lived in a relatively central part of town, a good fifteen minute drive from the library, and even further from Kyungsoo’s own house, which was purposefully in a secluded area. Junmyeon’s house itself was a bit oddly shaped, with random additions in a few spots (Junmyeon had apparently done them himself a while back. Kyungsoo was glad he hadn’t been around to see it). Inside, a musky, herbal smell permeated the air, and was ingrained in all of Junmyeon’s possessions, which were scattered haphazardly throughout the house. Junmyeon might be highly intelligent, but for the life of him he couldn’t seem to find time to organize all of his stuff. Kyungsoo sometimes wondered how he managed to get any work done if the stuff required for his spellcasting was buried under mounds of clothing and magazines.

A light stream of pale lavender smoke was drifting out of the kitchen, which probably meant that Junmyeon had been cooking again, and did something weird to the food to make up for his ability. At least the smoke smelled nice, something that reminded Kyungsoo of the sea.

He stepped into the kitchen to find a group of people sitting at Junmyeon’s large wooden work-slash-dining table. There was Minseok and Baekhyun, the local werewolf “pack” (they lived a cabin in the woods nearby, and smelled like dogs); Chanyeol, a fire elemental; Jongin, a nymph; and of fucking course, Jongdae. What a lovely group.

Sehun plopped down next to Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo nudged Minseok and Jongin apart to sit between them, as they were the most tolerable of the bunch. Unfortunately, this put him directly across from Jongdae, who gave him a cheeky smile, and tapped Kyungsoo’s foot with his own under the table. Kyungsoo was tempted to use his strength to squish Jongdae’s foot into oblivion, but settled with rolling his eyes and turning his attention to Minseok, who was talking to Chanyeol about some movie that had just come out.

“—but I still think the part where he gives up is the best,” Minseok was saying, “Oh, hey Kyungsoo. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

Kyungsoo shrugged. “It’s only been a few months. I’ve been busy reading, didn’t really have much of a reason to go out. Plus, you guys tend to hang out during the day.” With this, he sent Minseok a glare, and Minseok gave him a sheepish look.

“Sorry about that? We have to sleep at night, you know. Come out at the full moon with us some time, we go on a nice long run through the forest,” he suggested, tapping the table rhythmically.

“And have to babysit a couple of dogs? No thanks, we’ll just have to find some other time,” Kyungsoo said, rolling his eyes. Damn wolves stank up a storm on the full moon when they ran through the forest in their dog forms.

“Fine, Mr. I’ve-had-a-stick-up-my-ass-for-over-300-years,” Minseok joked, purposefully getting close to Kyungsoo to not-so-inconspicuously rub his scent on to Kyungsoo’s jacket, “We’ll do something boring like eat dinner and drink wine. Oh, right, you can’t do that either. Gosh, imagine 300 years of being bored out of your mind.”

Kyungsoo chuckled. “Listen here, you little whippersnapper--”

Junmyeon cleared his throat, and Minseok and Kyungsoo quietly dissolved into giggles, trying their hardest to keep themselves under control as Junmyeon gave them a pained look. Kyungsoo was over 300 years old, he could giggle whenever the hell he wanted.

Once Chanyeol and Sehun had stopped trying to burn little paper airplanes, Junmyeon began.

“I told all of you to come today because it appears we have an issue,” he said heavily, leaning on the table, “All the zombie attacks? They haven’t been stopping, and I can’t get all of them under control. I could kill one or two to help someone escape, but they’re coming in larger numbers. It’s too much for me to handle alone, so I’m asking for your help.”

Baekhyun broke in. “We’ll help if you give us some of whatever is cooking on your stove right now,” he said with a winning smile.

Junmyeon sighed. “I see it isn’t going to be possible to talk to you before food. Just please pay attention, this is a serious matter.” With Sehun’s help, he proceeded to hand out dishes and serve up something that was probably actually really good. As he worked, he continued talking.

“I’ve been making a map of where the attacks are occurring, and there are a few hotspots, including an area near Jongdae’s house” – Jongdae let out a sarcastic whoop—“and in the park. Which is obviously a problem, because there’s a higher concentration of people there, and we need to protect them while also protecting the integrity of the supernatural community.” Interesting. Normally zombie attacks came at random in areas around a graveyard. This might require Kyungsoo’s help after all.

Junmyeon passed Kyungsoo a juice box filled with blood (he could tell by the smell). Kyungsoo looked at him, surprised.

“It’s the least I could do since you agreed to help me,” Junmyeon said with a shrug, “It’s from a relatively healthy batch, and unprocessed, too; hopefully it’s to your tastes.”

Kyungsoo nodded in thanks. “Yeah, this is great, thank you.” He stabbed through the foil with his straw and took a sip. Marvelous. Normally when people thought of him, it was the cheap kind that had the bitter tang of medication or the heavy taste of too much fat in a diet, and had already been frozen and unfrozen. But this was the good stuff, the kind that Kyungsoo usually bought for himself for special occasions. Dammit, he was definitely being buttered up.

Junmyeon continued. “So the idea is that I need some willing volunteers to, say, walk around at night and take out some of the zombies for me so I can focus on why this is happening.” He finally sat down at the table and stated eating himself. “Thoughts?”

Kyungsoo sat up straighter. “I see where you’re going with this. Honestly, as long as it doesn’t take years to resolve this issue, I can help you kill the damn things. What’s your plan?”

“For the actual killing part, I was hoping you would have some idea of what to do. I’ve only been alive for so long, and I haven’t had much experience dealing with zombies,” Junmyeon admitted, “What do you think we’ll need to do?”

Chanyeol interrupted. “Can I burn some?” he asked excitedly, sparks flying from his hair onto the table. Junmyeon only heaved a silent sigh and made a gesture with his hands, extinguishing them before they burned his house down. Chanyeol’s fire wasn’t exactly like a normal campfire; if left to its own devices, a few sparks could easily burn down an entire building within minutes. Kyungsoo took a second to think and take a slurp from his drink. That might actually be useful.

He set down the carton in a precise motion and clasped his hands on the table. “Here’s the deal,” he said, seriously, “I can attack and kill zombies fairly easily. Larger crowds will take me some time, but I am pretty fast. However, since I’m technically undead myself, and zombies are attracted to things that they can eat, they won’t come to me.”

“So what you’re saying is that you need bait,” Minseok said thoughtfully. Kyungsoo nodded.

“The only problem with bait is that it leaves someone vulnerable to a zombie bite. You werewolves might not turn into a zombie yourself, but a bite will certainly give you a fever and leave you incapacitated for a few weeks,” Kyungsoo stated, drawing small circles with his pointer finger on the table. This would require some seriously planning to make sure everyone remained safe. “And, of course, the rest of you (I’m not sure about Jongin),”—Jongin shrugged—“are completely vulnerable.”

Jongdae broke in. “So can we do anything, or are we completely useless?”

Kyungsoo smiled. “Well, you can still be bait, we just have to be careful,” he said moving his drink to the center of the table, “Let’s say my juice box--”

“You mean blood box?” Baekhyun said with a laugh.

“Yes, but I try not to be crass. Juice box makes me sound less like a serial killer.” Kyungsoo swore he could hear Sehun muttering that he was definitely a serial killer, but he ignored the comment and continued. “Anyway, let’s say my juice box is the bait, which includes Jongdae, Sehun, Jongin, Junmyeon and Chanyeol. Junmyeon and Chanyeol can use what power they have to defend the group, and everyone will be armed in some way. Meanwhile, I’ll run around doing as much damage as possible, and once the zombies are mostly incapacitated, Minseok and Baekhyun can finish them off. The large bait will make sure all of the zombies in the area are drawn toward us, and I think I can probably manage to at least keep you guys safe. How about that?”

There were nods from all around the table, and Junmyeon added, “That’s great, better than what I was thinking of. Do you think we could do it two nights from now, maybe? I don’t want to lose any time.”

“As long as you have some kind of weapon for everyone, we should be good,” Kyungsoo said, sitting back. This would probably work, he just had to make sure to drink a few extra boxes of blood tomorrow. It wouldn’t do to run out of energy... Of course, fresh, straight from the vein blood would be better, but Kyungsoo tried not to do that to anyone without asking anymore. And he couldn’t ask any of the people sitting at the table, because they needed to keep their strength up. It wasn’t a big deal, he could easily make up the deficit by drinking more. Speaking of which, if he was going to be fighting, he would probably have to request a larger delivery for the next month. Large amounts of stress placed on his body tended to drain him fairly quickly, and the more he drank, the stronger and faster he became.

Junmyeon nodded. “Okay. Anyone have any objections? You don’t have to go if you don’t want to; nobody needs to put their life in danger.”

“I’ll go,” Jongin said quietly, “My classes have been easy lately, and I think I should do something to help.” Kyungsoo didn’t actually know a lot about nymphs. Apparently Jongin was a tree spirit, which came with an ability to communicate with the plants around him. He was also rather graceful, if half asleep most of the time. Both he and Chanyeol went to the same college in the area, with Jongin studying dance and Chanyeol doing... well, probably something that involved him accidently burning a lot of people.

Chanyeol raised his hand, his fingertips burning. “I’ll go to, you guys could definitely use my help.” Jongin grinned and raise his fist up, and Chanyeol reciprocated by putting out his flames and meeting him in a fist bump. “Anyone else?” Chanyeol added.

“I can’t do much, but I’ll come. I might end up learning something useful,” said Sehun, rubbing his face thoughtfully, “Maybe I could take notes while being bait.” Junmyeon looked vaguely worried at that, but nodded.

“We’re obviously coming,” Minseok said firmly for both him and Baekhyun, who clapped Minseok on the back and smiled. “This isn’t just your problem, Junmyeon, we need to take responsibility, too.”

“If so, I’m going as well,” Jongdae piped in, “Part of the problem is an area around my house, so I might as well fight with you guys, seeing as I’m going to end up being attacked again anyway.” Kyungsoo was slightly surprised at Jongdae’s determination. Good for him, though.

“Right. And with Kyungsoo and I, that’s everyone,” Junmyeon said, clearly pleased, “Thanks, guys. I’m sure we’ll have this done in no time.”

\--

Monday night found their group at the entrance to the park. Kyungsoo himself was antsy and buzzing with energy. He had drunk about twice as much as he usually did over the past few days, and seeing as his normal amount was more than adequate for his normal needs, he was ready for something, anything to happen.

Blocking out the chatter around him, Kyungsoo shut his eyes and breathed in the night air. Pine needles, crushed leaves, a hint of petrichor, and... yes, there, the sickly sweet smell of death and decay. “They’re here,” he said throatily, and the hubbub around him faded out. He opened his eyes.

“You can smell them?” Baekhyun asked. Kyungsoo nodded. If he could have seen himself in the mirror at this moment (the whole no reflection thing was just a myth), he was sure his pupils would be wide. He hadn’t felt this alive since the years with his partner back in Rome, when they had spent the nights prowling around, taking victims back to their bed and draining them dead, then ditching them to find yet another. Perhaps a spot of violence would do him good.

Junmyeon gave him a grim look, then turned to the group and said, “Let’s go in.”

With Kyungsoo leading the way, and the wolves in the back, their group of eight made their way into the heart of the forest in the park. They proceeded cautiously, eyes flitting from tree to tree in the darkness. Kyungsoo could tell the others were nervous. Which was okay, natural even. But really, they had nothing to fear when Kyungsoo was this excited.

Baekhyun and Minseok, on the other hand, were quite relaxed.

“Anyone want to sing a song? You guys are so tense,” Baekhyun said cheerfully from the back. From the sound of his footsteps, Kyungsoo could tell that he was almost skipping. He snorted.

“I could do with a little punk rock,” Minseok suggested, his voice cutting clear through the cool night air. Kyungsoo heard another sigh from Junmyeon.

“Can’t you just let the rest of the group be nervous in silence? I don’t want a surprise attack,” Junmyeon nearly whined, “Even if we have Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, and Minseok, there’s still the potential for danger.”

Kyungsoo tuned out their bickering, and absentmindedly began to flick his nails in and out. A few days of heavy blood consumption had them almost at their normal length, and razor sharp. He had to be careful not to accidentally slice any books at work earlier in the day.

Ten minutes in, they came across a small clearing, about twenty meters in diameter. Kyungsoo held out a hand, and everyone stopped.

“This should be good,” he murmured, again tasting the air. The space gave him room to work, but they were close enough to the trees to flee if necessary. “Those of you acting as bait, get into the middle. Everyone else, get into position.”

The other members of the group shuffled into place. Jongdae looked scared, unnecessarily so. Kyungsoo had dealt with worse at a younger age. Large groups of zombies were no big deal. If they had been against other vampires, however, Kyungsoo might have a bit of a problem.

He stood there, stock still, listening. Crickets, birds, squirrels, and the creaking of old joints. Aha. “They’re about ten minutes from here,” he said shortly motioning for Junmyeon to come closer to him, which he did, with a mild air of confusion.

Kyungsoo met his eyes and stepped in closer. “This will work better if they can smell blood in the air.” He quirked an eyebrow. “May I have your arm?” Junmyeon said nothing, but held up his arm for Kyungsoo to take. Clearly he knew what was on Kyungsoo’s mind.

“Thank you.” Kyungsoo flicked out the nail on his pointer finger, and cut a neat line into his arm near the inside of his elbow. Jongdae yelped, and Sehun let out a little gasp. He was probably going to hear it for this later, but Kyungsoo wanted to speed the process up. They didn’t have all night.

He brought Junmyeon’s arm closer to his face to inspect the cut. “That’s sufficient. Squeeze a little blood out on the grass here, and I’ll seal it up for you.” Vampire saliva had its uses, when they bothered to utilize it.

Junmyeon did as he was told, allowing the blood to drip down to the grass. It shined darkly in the feeble light of the moon. Kyungsoo could smell it, as well as the slight hint of magic associated with wizards. It made Junmyeon’s blood taste exotic, though, as he gripped his arm and swiped his tongue along the line of the cut. The bleeding halted, Kyungsoo licked his lips and winked at Junmyeon, who scoffed.

“Was that really necessary?” he asked, rubbing the area just above the glistening slit that was already in the process of scabbing.

Kyungsoo chuckled. “Not entirely, but it was fun. And, of course, now the zombies are on their way.” He turned in the direction of their scent, a sense of exhilaration washing over him.

The first stumbled out of the trees, dragging its mangled limbs as fast as possible towards them, more following behind. Kyungsoo shot forward, crashing through the mass, ripping anything in his way to pieces. Using his nails, he gripped onto the zombie’s cranium with one hand and the joint between its neck and shoulder with the other, and pulled, tearing its head straight off its body. Disgusting, but effective. One loomed behind him, and he used a quick jab from his elbow to bash its head in, then spun and kicked it to the ground. 

Minseok bounded up in wolf form and proceeded to rip it to pieces, barking at Kyungsoo once. Kyungsoo nodded and tore off in the direction of one zombie that was getting a little too close to the bait. He approached it from behind and thrust his fist nails first through its chest, pulling it back and throwing it to the ground. He looked up to see the group staring at him in something that might have been shock, but that was irrelevant at the moment.

He pointed at Chanyeol with his free hand. “Burn it.” Chanyeol nodded slowly, his eyes wide, but raised his hands, flames already starting to drip of his fingertips. Kyungsoo gave him a feral grin, and pulled his hand still stuck in the zombie’s chest free with a sickening squelch. He took a step back, then threw himself in the air at a zombie approaching from the other side, crashing into it and bashing its head against the ground. Baekhyun was there to rip its head all the way off, so Kyungsoo moved on.

Over the course of the next twenty minutes, Kyungsoo faithfully dismembered approximately thirty zombies. He wasn’t really counting, just trying to get the job done in the most efficient way possible. As he flat out punched the head off the last one, he thought absentmindedly about how much fun this would have been had he been a hundred years younger. Not that he was bored; killing nasty things was always at least a little entertaining. But a younger version of himself would have relished in the killing, whereas now he saw it as a duty. He turned back towards the group, where Chanyeol was putting out the ring of fire he had created to protect them. Kyungsoo hadn’t thought of that; maybe that kid did have a head on his shoulders after all.

Walking over, he brushed of his hands, inspecting his nails for damage. One had broken off, but that could easily be fixed with a metal file and a week’s time of growth. Nothing serious. He had tried to sink his nails through its skull, but that particular zombie was a little too fresh.

“Is that all of them?” an exhausted-looking Junmyeon asked, tucking a bag of flash powder back into his jacket.

Kyungsoo nodded. “Yep. I can’t hear any more, but we should still be a little careful when walking back. Is everyone okay?” he asked, moving to address the rest of the group.

Baekhyun, wearing only a pair of sweatpants, replied cheerfully. “Nope, no bites. I got a few scratches from some branches, though.”

“Get Junmyeon to clean them for you; there’s a lot of zombie blood around and I don’t want you getting accidentally infected. Anyone else?”

The group shook their heads mutely. Jongdae and Sehun looked particularly disturbed by the carnage around them. Perhaps Kyungsoo would need to have a talk with them. He remembered being a bit disturbed the first time he had killed something, so a little counseling would not go amiss.

“Let’s head back, everyone. Make sure to go to bed as soon as possible, especially those of you that have to be up in the morning,” Junmyeon said, already walking back the way they came. Kyungsoo herded everyone along, stamping out a few leftover sparks from Chanyeol, who was looking about as sleepy and Jongin usually did, now that the excitement had died down.

Kyungsoo sighed. Jongdae wasn’t really his responsibility, but he was the one who had dragged the guy into this to be bait. Jongdae wasn’t that bad, he mused, as he lead the group back through the trees. Sure, he could be obnoxious at times, but that was part of his charm. Kyungsoo realized he should probably stop being so mean to the guy; his only crime was wanting help to rid himself of an unusually large zombie infestation.

Time to try and remedy his rudeness. Upon reaching the entrance to the park and their cars, Kyungsoo pulled Jongdae to the side.

“Are you alright?” he asked, careful to not let any dirtied part of him touch Jongdae. He was already going to smell bad for a while, he didn’t need Jongdae smelling awful as well.

“I guess? I... just wasn’t really expecting that. You, you really... you can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time, and I didn’t think it was possible for one person.” Jongdae admitted, his eyes on the ground. So not alright, then.

Kyungsoo blew out a breath, resisting the temptation to run a hand through his hair. That would truly be disgusting. “Junmyeon drove you here, right? Come back home with me. I need to take a quick shower, but there’s a pizza place open late a couple blocks from my house and I think you could use some food.”

“Okay,” Jongdae agreed quietly, not seeming to want to protest, and got into the car when Kyungsoo opened the door. He shut it, then walked around to the other side, opening his own door and sitting down carefully on the tarps he had placed on his seat in advance so the zombie stink wouldn’t spread to his car. He pulled on the disposable gloves thrown over his steering wheel, and was turning the key in the ignition when he noticed Jongdae staring at him.

“What?” he finally asked, pulling away from the park, and turning onto the main road, “Is it the gloves and tarp? I wasn’t kidding when I said zombies smell awful, and I don’t want the smell in my car.” Jongdae let out a little laugh and relaxed slightly.

“Well, it’s partly that, and partly the fact that I can’t stop thinking about how you could kill me right here and now and no one, including me, would be able to stop you,” he said, shivering slightly. Kyungsoo turned the heat in the car on.

“I’m not going to kill you, if it helps,” Kyungsoo said with a rueful laugh. “You get used to the feeling, I promise. You’re just going to have to trust that I don’t attack anyone who isn’t going to hurt me or my friends. And I only bite if someone lets me,” he added, looking over to make sure Jongdae understood. Well, he was looking a little calmer. Food would help.

Jongdae sighed, resting his head on the window. “It’s just, going from a life of zero violence to you killing zombies left and right is a big jump. You’ve had... how old are you, exactly?”

“If you count the years I actually spent alive, 327, 328 this January.”

“Oh, wow, holy shit. You’re older than I thought you were. Okay, you’ve had 327, almost 328 years to acclimatize yourself to violence, and I’ve had a mere 26. We’re not really on a fair playing field here.”

When Kyungsoo was 26, his world was one of violence and a struggle to survive, constantly looking for something to drink, to satiate his never-ending thirst. His memories of those days were a blur. He had been turned and separated from his family, and he remembers running and killing whoever he could find in order to have enough strength to fight off other vampires looking for an easy target. Kyungsoo gained a lot of strength from that, though. But yes, he’d had a while and a lot of peaceful time to get over it.

He watched Jongdae out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing. Instead he turned into his driveway, and got out of his car, shaking himself to get his blood moving. Jongdae followed him slowly, clearly very tired. Kyungsoo smiled to himself. They really were worlds apart.

Kyungsoo unlocked his door and held it open for Jongdae to step through. He motioned for Jongdae to take a seat on his sofa, then stripped off his coat and flicked on a light. “I’ll only be about ten minutes. Please don’t fall asleep,” he said to Jongdae, who was clearly getting comfortable. That was good. If Jongdae could relax, it meant that he was a little less scared and that Kyungsoo was doing well to make up for yelling at him.

“Sure thing,” Jongdae mumbled, wriggling further into the sofa, “I’ll do my best.” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and quickly climbed the stairs, stripping once he reached his bedroom (he still had to sleep, just not as often or as much as humans. It was convenient to sleep during the day when he could be burnt, anyhow). After placing all of his dirtied clothing in a plastic bag for later disinfecting, he got into the shower, using copious amounts of hot water and soap to scrub himself down. Once he was satisfied with his state of cleanliness, he turned off the water and toweled himself off, checking under his nails for any leftover bits of zombie flesh. None found, he quickly dressed and jogged back downstairs.

“Jongdae?” he called out, entering the kitchen to grab a juice box full of blood. He was a bit low on energy from all the fighting he just did, and it wouldn’t do to accidentally bite someone out of hunger.

“Still awake,” came a sleepy call from the living room. Kyungsoo walked in to find Jongdae staring up at the ceiling.

“Why is it blue?” he asked. “Aren’t ceilings usually white?”

Kyungsoo definitely needed to repaint that. “I got mad one day,” he said shortly, and gestured toward the door. "Let’s go. I’m paying.”

At that Jongdae jumped up, looking suddenly alert. “Yessir, I am coming right away, and I will do my best to ignore your weird blue ceiling, let’s go indeed.”

Kyungsoo used two fingers to flick him lightly as he walked by. “Less of the sass, more of the walking,” he complained, and followed Jongdae out the door. He locked it behind him, and started the two blocks’ walk to the pizza place.

Jongdae was silent for most of the way there, only commenting on how tired he was, and Kyungsoo chose not to prompt him to talk just yet. The night air tasted better now that he had showered and there weren’t zombies around, but he could still smell the scent of decay left on his skin. Damn.

Light spilled out of the pizza shop, warming the sidewalk outside. Kyungsoo liked this place, even if he didn’t come very often. He opened the door, holding it open behind him for Jongdae, who thanked him and stepped in. Kyungsoo directed him to a booth next to the window looking out on the darkened street.

They slid into the booth, and Kyungsoo pushed the menu across the table to Jongdae. “Order whatever the hell you want. I can’t eat any of it, so I have no idea what is good and what isn’t.” At this, Jongdae looked thrilled.

“Wow, paying for me and letting me order? This is a real treat, thanks Kyungsoo,” Jongdae said gleefully, flipping through the pages and running his finger down one of the columns. Kyungsoo just sat back, pushed his straw through the foil of the juice box he had brought with, and took a brief sip.

“Only order as much as you can eat, asshole. This isn’t take-advantage-of-Kyungsoo day, it’s let’s-thank-Kyungsoo-for-saving-my-life day.”

“Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that.” Good, even the thought of food was bringing Jongdae’s usual bouncy personality back.

Jongdae waved down the waitress and pointed out a few things on the menu. Kyungsoo zoned out, thinking about the best way to approach this conversation. It had to be handled with delicacy.

“What’s holding you back, Jongdae?” he said abruptly. There went that plan. Jongdae looked a little startled. Whoops. He’d get there eventually.

Jongdae tapped on the table with a fingernail. “I guess... you’re scary?” he said bluntly, “I could beat around the bush, but that’s not really my style. You scared me tonight.”

Kyungsoo nodded. “That’s understandable. I think I should start out by telling you a story.” Perhaps if he told Jongdae something a little embarrassing, he would open up a little. 

“Do you know anything about San Francisco’s reputation?” Jongdae shook his head. “Well. San Francisco has a rather booming kink scene. Sex clubs all over. At least, it did when I was there. I’m not sure how it is right now, but I can’t see that stopping.” Jongdae had a small smirk on his face, but he nodded along.

“One of my friends was sort of involved in the SM scene, and begged me for about a week to come with him until I relented. So we went together to one of the clubs, and of course he abandons me about five minutes after arriving.

“I was sitting there, minding my own business, when some big buff man walks up to me wearing nothing but a pair of leather shorts, and he says, ‘Hey pretty, want to be my bitch?’ and of course I didn’t, because I didn’t know him, so I may or may not have punched him and ran away. Needless to say, I wasn’t allowed back in.”

Jongdae could hardly contain his giggles.

“When you’re over 300 years old, you’re bound to have some embarrassing moments,” Kyungsoo explained, trying to fight back a grin himself, “But the truly embarrassing part was that in that moment I was more scared than I’ve ever been. I might look small, but I’m really very strong. However, I didn’t have the power to use it in that moment because I was caught so off guard. I’ve grown since then, though. My friend and I just switched clubs.” Jongdae looked like he wanted to ask, but thankfully he didn’t. That was another day, another story.

“You’re saying I should take this as a learning experience?” Jongdae said, a bit confused. “You’re still stronger than me either way.”

Kyungsoo set down his drink and spread out his hands. “I might be strong, but I still have weaknesses. Sunlight, an aversion to anything with religious symbols, fires, buff men in leather shorts...”

At this, Jongdae laughed. “You’re still very fast, though, and if you attacked me out of the blue, I doubt I could win even if I had all of those things.”

“Which is why you have to learn to trust me,” Kyungsoo reasoned, picking his drink back up and taking another sip, “I’m not going to hurt you, or even try to take your blood without your consent. Look at Sehun, we’ve worked together for two years and I’ve never touched him with malicious intent.”

The waiter came over to their table with a pizza for Jongdae, so their conversation took a brief pause so Jongdae could start eating. After he had consumed a few blissful bites (which Kyungsoo found himself watching, for some reason), he took a sip of his drink and cleared his throat.

“I think I can accept that. If Sehun’s scaredy-cat ass can trust you, so can I. Although, you were pretty hostile to me the first day I met you,” Jongdae pointed out, going back to his pizza.

Kyungsoo finished off his drink, the remnants crackling up the straw. He set the carton down and crossed his arms, resting them on the table. “I didn’t know you, and you didn’t mention that you knew Junmyeon. Imagine if the general population found out that not only do vampires exist, but that I am one. I do have other places to go, but I wouldn’t be able to get my finances or contacts sorted in time. If someone were to find me out, I’d have to drop everything and hide.”

Jongdae chewed thoughtfully. “You have a good point. I thought you were just a nasty person, that or you didn’t like me for some reason.”

Kyungsoo blinked in surprise. “No, when you’re not being obnoxious on purpose, I think you’re actually all right. I’m sorry if I seemed cold. If you stopped pissing me off intentionally, I think we could be friends.”

“Oh. Okay, sure. Man, you just shock me at every turn,” Jongdae laughed, sitting back with his drink in his hand, “One second you’re yelling at me and killing everything in sight, and the next you’re telling me that we could be friends and buying me pizza. Which I really appreciate, by the way.”

“Of course. And I’ll try to be a little nicer from now on, just for you,” Kyungsoo said with another eye roll. Jongdae grinned at him.

“So, Kyungsoo, do you watch any sports?”

“Um. No?”

“Great, neither do I!”


	2. Chapter 2

Kyungsoo shut his door, and leaned against it. They had discussed music, among other things, and Kyungsoo was pleased to find out that Jongdae also enjoyed jazz. The younger was actually... very fun to talk to, when he wasn’t teasing Kyungsoo or making his life difficult, but that was probably just part of his personality. Not everyone could be perfect.

Which Kyungsoo was definitely not. He was well aware that he had his failings. He could be jealous, was easily angered, and had a tendency to ignore people for long stretches of time on a whim.

He walked into his living room, and stared once again at the bright blue ceiling. Jongdae had been flirting with him at some points, he knew that. The brushes against his feet under the table were on purpose, and Jongdae had made a point to lean in close to him and look directly into his eyes.

Kyungsoo was attracted to Jongdae. That much he could admit. And he could get used to the snappy attitude.

But it had been so long since he last had a legitimate relationship with someone. What if he was reading things wrong? No, no, that wasn’t it. Kyungsoo was scared. Scared of getting into something unknown, and if Jongdae could get over that fear, so could he.

Kyungsoo focused on the ceiling again. Maybe Jongdae would like to help him paint over it.

\--

After the hubbub of last night, a nice relaxing shift at the library was just the thing Kyungsoo needed. Of course, knowing his luck lately, that wasn’t to be the case.

He was back in the medical texts looking up another obscure medical condition that he was pretty sure didn’t even exist this time when he heard a certain someone clearing his throat. Kyungsoo let his head thunk against the bookshelves. “Jongdae, why are you here?”

“Because you actually like me a lot?” Jongdae was leaning against the shelves, hands in his jacket pockets. Obnoxious brat. Although... the obnoxious was growing on him. Maybe it had something to do with his brilliant smiles every time Kyungsoo got mad. They made him feel, well, a lot less mad.

“Remember how I told you last night that I would like you if you would stop being annoying?” Kyungsoo asked, crouching to check a few titles. If that book was going to exist, it would be right here. Nothing. Maybe this asshole was trying to mess with him, or just pretending that he knew more than he actually did. Motherfucker, if it wasn’t in the card catalog, it didn’t exist. Speaking of the card catalog, what was this, the 1970s? Didn’t the library hire someone to take care of adding everything to their electronic database, like, a long time ago? He’d have to bring it up with his boss.

“I mean, you did, but I took that as a, ‘Jongdae you’re cute when you’re annoying’ kind of thing,” he said shifting his weight on to his other leg. Kyungsoo was crouching right next to his legs. They were nice legs. Kyungsoo was suddenly very aware of Jongdae’s entire body, warm and breathing next to him. Right, that’s why he preferred relationships with other vampires, no tempting blood. This was going to be harder than he had previously thought.

Standing, Kyungsoo turned to glare at Jongdae. “Not sure if you’ve noticed, but Sehun and I are working, and would like to not be bothered while doing so,” he paused, “Wait, don’t you have a fucking job?” How did Jongdae have the free time to come and annoy him at all hours of the day?

Jongdae smiled easily. “I work as a mostly freelance graphic designer. As long as I get my projects done in time, I don’t have hours.”

“What?! That’s not a real fucking job,” Kyungsoo complained. The unfairness of it all.

“Sure is. I make plenty of money doing it, just look at my bank account.” Damn. Kyungsoo knew already what his next career would be. That sounded really convenient.

Kyungsoo waved him off. “Fine, it’s a real job. I’m just jealous. Why didn’t I think of that?” he grumbled to himself, and did one last scan of the shelves before officially giving up. Jongdae just laughed. “Anyway, I was serious about not bothering me at work. Is there anything you actually want, or did you just come to be obnoxious?” Kyungsoo made his way back through the shelves to the desk, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

Jongdae snapped his fingers, following behind him. “Actually, yes. Junmyeon told me to tell you good job last night, and we have another meeting tonight. And he wanted me to ask Sehun if we could go to his place, because apparently we’re going to be doing some research.”

Sehun, who was lounging in his chair typing at the workstation’s computer, rolled his eyes. “Junmyeon texted me like three hours ago, and I already said yes. Tell us what you really want, Jongdae.” Kyungsoo was kind of curious about that, too.

Jongdae shrugged. “I’m done with all my work for the next couple of days, and I was bored. Can’t I come see some of my new friends and deliver a message in person?” He rested his elbows on the waist-high desktop and batted his eyelashes. “It’s so much warmer than a text, right? Nothing wrong with forging new bonds,” he said demurely.

Kyungsoo moved to affix the jacket covers on securely on the books that Sehun had just finished cataloguing. “As long as you let us get our work done, I don’t mind. But at least pretend to be asking about a book or something. I wouldn’t want our boss to come up here and see us engaging in mostly useless conversation.”

At this, Sehun paused in his typing to reach over and lightly punch Kyungsoo in the shoulder. “Relax. That old geezer isn’t going to make his way up the stairs anytime in the next month, and you know it.” Sehun had a point there.

He carefully smoothed down some adhesive tape before giving a hopeful-looking Jongdae a glance. “Fine. Stay here and mess around, just don’t damage anything and I won’t complain. And it wouldn’t kill you to make use of the library’s Wi-Fi and actually get some work done here, you know.” Turning to Sehun, Kyungsoo said, “I caught that old comment, don’t think I didn’t.” Sehun gave him a sly look.

Jongdae’s eyes widened, and he looked like had just had his greatest epiphany ever. “Damn, I didn’t think of that. You guys actually have Wi-Fi in this ancient place?”

Kyungsoo reached out to flick Jongdae in the forehead, prompting a yelp and some furious rubbing. “Yes, we have Wi-Fi. This is a public library, we’ve had it for... well, since before I’ve been here, so stop telling me this place is ancient.”

“Oh, please, you still have a card catalogue.” Kyungsoo really had to put in a complaint about that.

\--

Sehun’s house was a hulking mass of dark red brick he had inherited from his parents, who were now somewhere in Florida living out the rest of their lives in relative peace, away from all the supernatural buzz. Kyungsoo had been to the house many times before to borrow a few of the many books that Sehun’s parents (and apparently grandparents) had spent their lives collecting. It was probably the largest supernatural library within 200 miles, at least. The interior was all dark wood with bookshelves from the floor to high ceiling in every room, except the bathrooms. There were even books in Sehun’s room, although those were his personal favorites and not about anything in particular. Kyungsoo rather enjoyed Sehun’s house.

Junmyeon called the group to attention. Sehun was eyeing Chanyeol warily with a fire extinguisher in hand.

“I’m glad to see all of you here again. Nice job last night to everyone, and I’m glad that everything worked out okay. However, we have a problem on our hands,” Junmyeon said, leaning with both hands on Sehun’s ancient and massive dining table. When Kyungsoo had seen the table in the past, it was always covered in papers and books, all part of projects that Sehun was working on. He was surprised that Sehun had bothered to clean it off. Perhaps Sehun liked Junmyeon more than he let on.

“What do you mean by problem?” Minseok asked, a hand coming up to run through his short spiky hair. At his side, Baekhyun was fiddling with a scrap of paper, looking relaxed as usual.

Sehun spoke up. “I’ve been helping Junmyeon look into this, actually. What we saw last night was far too many zombies for a normal range of attacks.”

Junmyeon nodded along with Sehun’s words. “So I reasoned that there must be someone creating the zombies at a high rate. Which is where the problem comes in: who are they, and why are they doing this? That’s what I’ve called you all here to figure out.”

He gestured at Sehun’s bookshelves. “We’re going to look through some of these books on zombies and the beings that are able to create them, and hopefully that will give us some insight on how to stop the problem.”

Chanyeol raised a hand. “Um. I don’t really think I should be working around old books for too long. Is there something I could do instead?”

Baekhyun also raised his hand, nodding frantically, “I can’t focus for very long; can I have a different task as well? I could probably be more productive doing something physical.”

“For the sake of my poor books, hyung, please let them do something else,” Sehun whined, his grip on his fire extinguisher never faltering. Junmyeon let out a chuckle.

“Sure. How about you guys go out and patrol the areas on my map, and bring us food halfway through? After last night, I’d like to try and keep the human citizens of this town protected, and we’re going to be hungry at some point,” Junmyeon said, pulling out his wallet and throwing a few bills on the table, “Anyone else want to put in for food?”

Kyungsoo pulled out a few twenties even though he couldn’t eat anything. He might as well treat his juniors; they actually needed their money. “I’ll get the rest, Junmyeon,” he called out, sliding the money across the table.

At his side, Jongin took one of his hands in both of his own and looked into his eyes. “Hyung, thank you so much. This means a lot to me.” Ah, college. “You can have some of my blood if you want.”

Kyungsoo gently pulled his hand out and ruffled Jongin’s smooth hair. “That won’t be necessary, Jongin. Just work hard tonight, okay?”

“I will, definitely,” Jongin agreed reverently.

Jongdae spoke up from his other side, where his chair was awfully close to Kyungsoo’s, not that he was complaining. “Our hero,” he sighed, wrapping an arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulder. Kyungsoo didn’t bother to shrug it off, just reached over to swat Jongdae’s face as light as he could.

“Just let me pay. It’s no big deal. Pay me back by figuring this out so I can get back to my life,” he scowled, “I smell like zombie and I’m not a fan.”

“Agreed,” said Junmyeon, picking up a particularly thick book. “Let’s get to work.”

The group dispersed all over the house under Sehun’s instruction, Baekhyun and Chanyeol departing with a wave and a couple tongues of flame. Somehow Kyungsoo ended up sitting with Jongdae in the kitchen, with a view into the dining room where Junmyeon and Sehun were sitting with their heads together. Hmm. This would be a good chance to scope things out.

Kyungsoo cracked open a large, dusty book on semi-powerful demons, scooted his chair in, and got his notebook into position.

“What exactly should I be writing down here?” Jongdae asked, flipping through his own book about semi-powerful demons in Europe instead of the Americas. “How do I know who is capable of raising demons and who isn’t?”

In the middle of running his finger down a list, Kyungsoo paused, and turned his book towards Jongdae. “I guess it’s just a measure of who has enough power? Look to see what they’ve done, what they’re known for. Take down some basic information on anyone who has done anything with raising the dead, or is known to perform rituals. Since you have the Europe book, look for anyone who stopped being active after some point or moved to the Americas. I doubt we’ll find anything particularly useful, but we might as well try.”

“I can do that,” Jongdae said, opening his book to the first chapter. “Why semi-powerful demons, though?”

“Because the powerful ones wouldn’t bother with something slow like zombies, they would have other less powerful demons under their charge. I think,” Kyungsoo muttered, already immersed in his text. Damn, he hadn’t read this kind of old language in a while. It felt good, almost.

“Right, that makes sense,” Jongdae trailed off, starting to read himself.

As he read, Kyungsoo was careful to keep casual tabs on what Sehun and Junmyeon were doing. He needed some new material to tease them with.

A few hours in, Minseok walked into the kitchen and leaned in over Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Yes. I’ve been watching them all night.”

Minseok chuckled darkly. “I’ve got Junmyeon now. He’s been denying this for months.” Minseok, Baekhyun, Junmyeon, Chanyeol, and Jongin had met in various ways over the past ten years, and had been friends for ages. Sehun and Kyungsoo were a more recent addition, and Jongdae knew both Minseok and Junmyeon back in college, as Jongdae had told him earlier as he was busy shelving.

“Fantastic. You jump Junmyeon, and I’ll get Sehun tomorrow at work. I’m tired of him hiding his texts from me.”

Jongdae looked from the pair in the dining room, to Kyungsoo and Minseok, and back again. He leaned in. “Am I missing something here?” he asked.

Minseok looked over at him. “Yeah? You’re aware that Junmyeon and Sehun have feelings for each other, right?” he murmured, eyes flitting back to the pair, who currently had their heads bent over the same book.

Jongdae looked slightly taken aback. “Oh. No, I didn’t realize that. Junmyeon never mentioned anything to me.”

Minseok rolled his eyes. “He’s been agonizing over it for ages. Claiming he doesn’t have the time, saying he might as well, then saying he’s too busy again.”

“Has he really?” Kyungsoo muttered. “Interesting.”

They heard the sound of the door opening, then Baekhyun’s voice called out, “Food’s here! Nice and hot, too!” Kyungsoo certainly hoped that it was just hot, and not burnt to a crisp as well. Chanyeol often had a little... trouble controlling his power.

Minseok slapped him on the back. “Good talk. My stomach needs filling. Jongdae, come on.” Jongdae put down his pen and followed Minseok slowly into the dining room. Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged and went back to reading. He could figure that one out later.

It was late into the night when they finally narrowed the list down to about a hundred names. The younger ones had tapped out earlier on, as they had class and work in the morning.

So they were left with Junmyeon, Sehun, Jongdae, Minseok, and Kyungsoo standing around the kitchen table, staring at the list.

“That’s a lot of names,” Kyungsoo finally said.

Junmyeon nodded. “Yeah, I noticed, thanks for pointing that out,” he sighed, pulling out a chair and collapsing into it. He used one hand to rub his temples. “This gives us virtually no information.”

“You’re right about that,” Minseok agreed, slowly walking backwards to stick his hand into the leftover pizza box, and pulling some out. “We combed through a ton of text and that’s all we got.” He bit into the slice, still staring avidly at the list.

Sehun was sipping a mug of tea. He suddenly jumped up, nearly spilling his drink. “Wait, Junmyeon, you were saying something about your friend who’s a shaman, what’s his name?”

Junmyeon looked up at Sehun and slammed his fist onto the table. “Well shit, I forgot all about Yixing! That’s it, I’ll call him! He’s done a lot of research about this sort of thing, he’ll be able to help us out, maybe narrow this list down a little, or just give us a bit more information. Yixing is in New York at the moment, but I bet I can convince him to come here.” He excitedly pulled out his phone, but Kyungsoo laid a hand on his arm.

“Junmyeon, it’s past 2 am. Wait until tomorrow morning, maybe?” he suggested lightly. Junmyeon deflated, yawning.

“You’re right. All of you, go home and get some sleep. We’ll meet again soon, once I have some new information for you.”

The group was waving goodbye when Junmyeon pulled Kyungsoo aside.

“Do you think you could do me a favor and keep watch over Jongdae if he goes out at night?”

Kyungsoo stared at him. “Why?”

Junmyeon rubbed his neck with one hand. “See, the problem is Jongdae’s neighborhood still has a few zombies running around, and I need you to protect him because you’re up at night anyway. Do you think you could do me that little favor?” Oh boy.

“Is there an option not to?” Kyungsoo groaned. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help Jongdae, he just wanted some free time and adding that to his day really wasn’t helping much.

“Um. Nobody else really wanted to do it, and you’re the most capable of the group, so no not really?”

Kyungsoo sighed. “Fine. Why can’t I say no to you?” he mumbled, and flagged Jongdae down before he went out the door.

Junmyeon shrugged. “I’m really glad you can help, though, I’m already stretched thin as it is,” he said, patting Kyungsoo on the shoulder.

Jongdae walked over. “Yeah, Kyungsoo?”

“I’m going to be escorting you home until we get this sorted,” he explained, “Junmyeon thinks your neighborhood is too dangerous for you to navigate alone, so I’ll walk you or drive you.”

Jongdae got a glint in his eye. “You’re going to take me home every day?”

Kyungsoo was starting to get a really bad feeling about this. “When it’s dark, yes,” he said cautiously, aware that Jongdae was probably going to take advantage of him.

“Fantastic,” Jongdae purred. He gripped Kyungsoo’s jacket, and tugged him out of the house. Kyungsoo helplessly waved goodbye to Junmyeon and the rest, resigning himself to his fate.

The two of them walked down Sehun’s driveway to Kyungsoo’s car. He unlocked it and climbed in, Jongdae following. After buckling himself in, Jongdae looked at Kyungsoo with one eyebrow lifted.

“No gentlemanly opening my door this time? Should I be offended?” he said with a slight smirk.

Kyungsoo sighed and leaned his head against the top of the wheel. “You were in shock, so I was being nice. I’m sure you can open your own doors from now on.” Mother fucker, he was totally doing this on purpose.

\--

Over the next week or so, Jongdae proceeded to call Kyungsoo to walk him home nearly every day, and if it wasn’t just to his house, it was out on some seemingly important errand. Kyungsoo couldn’t tell if he was doing it to be an asshole, or if he just wanted to flirt relentlessly with him.

He was starting to feel like it was the latter, especially when Jongdae insisted that he was “scared” and linked arms with Kyungsoo for their whole walk to some bookstore in Jongdae’s area. 

Doing just this wouldn’t have been too much of an issue, but Junmyeon had also requested that he, Baekhyun, and Minseok spend a few hours each night killing as many zombies as they could in order to keep the numbers down. Kyungsoo had suggested that he just drive them on the errands (Jongdae didn’t own a car), but Jongdae said it was a waste of time and gas to drive short distances and then try to find parking.

So Jongdae had clung to him like a barnacle, yammering away about his work and music and whatever he could think of at the time. They had actually encountered a group of zombies one night, which Kyungsoo disposed of using a baseball bat, so he supposed that the whole “watching over” thing wasn’t a total waste.

However, this Thursday, Kyungsoo was convinced Jongdae was just messing with him.

“I really need to pick up some stuff at the convenience store!” Jongdae whined over the phone. Kyungsoo sighed.

“What could you possibly need from the convenience store at half past midnight?”

“I’m hungry? And I haven’t been to the grocery store in a couple weeks so I have no food.”

“Drink a glass of water and go to bed, oh my god.”

“But I’m working on something. I should get some energy drinks, too, since this is due on Saturday.” This was ridiculous.

“I signed up to protect you, not to be your babysitter.”

“I won’t call you tomorrow, I promise. Please come?”

“Fine.” Kyungsoo viciously hit the button to hang up, then slipped his phone back into his pocket, threw on a jacket, and walked out of his house. He got into his car, pausing for a few moments to have a brief existential crisis. Kyungsoo, a 327-year-old vampire, was at the beck and call of some wimpy human. What was he doing with himself? He shook his head and turned the key in the ignition, and made his way over to Jongdae’s house, slamming the car door as he got out.

Luckily, Jongdae was actually waiting for him at the door instead of making him wait while he got ready like the past three times.

“I’m good, let’s go!” Jongdae chirped, pointing in the direction of the store and moving to walk alongside Kyungsoo. He could tell that Jongdae was purposefully letting their shoulders brush as they walked.

“What did you do after I left the library?” Jongdae had been coming for a few hours a day, laptop under his arm, to work on some designs. He claimed that the environment made him more productive, but as he spent half his time there talking to Kyungsoo and Sehun, Kyungsoo doubted the legitimacy of that claim.

“My job.”

Jongdae whined. “Come on, Kyungsoo, give me a real answer. I’m just curious.”

Kyungsoo treated him to an eye roll, but complied anyway. “We got some new arrivals, so I catalogued those. I also found out that the guy who was supposed to be converting the card catalog to a computer system was fired a very long time ago, so Sehun and I are now in charge of implementing the newer system in our section. Which means we have to go through the entire third floor and enter every single book into our computer. We’re using the old card catalog as reference, but we still have to check that all the books there still exist and are in the right place. It’s quite the undertaking, and perhaps the most tedious work I’ve done in 200 years.”

“Oh. That doesn’t sound like fun. When did you decide you wanted to be a librarian?”

Kyungsoo had to think for a minute. “I think a while back I decided that if I ever needed a break from life, I’d settle down for a while and become a librarian. After New York, I definitely needed a break, so here I am. This is my resting job.”

Jongdae chuckled. “It’s a little funny how you’re here to rest, but instead you’re dealing with a zombie invasion.”

“Yeah, well, supernatural attracts supernatural, so it was bound to happen anyway. This is relatively peaceful compared to Salem, though.”

“What happened in Salem?” Jongdae asked, sounding legitimately curious.

Kyungsoo looked up at the stars. “There’s a coven of witches that lives there. They didn’t like me because I decided to kill a few of the monsters they had created, so they all banded together and made a rather large zombie horde. I spent three days and several stops for fresh blood killing all of them before they started an outbreak amongst the general living population. It wasn’t particularly fun.”

Jongdae whistled. “Can’t say I envy you there. Also, what do you mean by fresh blood?” 

“I mean that I’m stronger when I take blood fresh from a human.” Kyungsoo explained, opening the door to the convenience store and allowing Jongdae to walk in ahead of him.

Looking back at him, Jongdae raised an eyebrow. “Really? Why don’t you do that now?”

“Well for one, I think it’s kind of rude to attack people and drain all of their blood. Because you can’t have them finding out that vampires exist, so you have to kill them afterwards.” Kyungsoo explained, looking over all the brightly colored bags of snacks. Jongdae grabbed a few, then moved on to the energy drinks.

“But can’t you just ask someone? Like, a trusted few people?”

“I could, but I do actually require quite a bit of blood to keep me going, so that would be a bit unfair to that few. Although, I could pay them...” Kyungsoo mused, picking up one of the cellophane bags and sniffing it. That... did not smell appetizing, though it might to someone who could actually digest something other than blood. “Anyway, it’s easier to just buy blood in juice box form. Less violence, I can eat at work, Sehun can put up with my eating habits, and so on.” He joined Jongdae where he was standing in front of the large refrigerators housing the many types of energy drinks.

Jongdae looked sideways at him. “You don’t want to be stronger?” he asked, and opened the glass door to pull out something bright blue and decidedly not-natural looking.

Kyungsoo shook his head. “I don’t need to, not when I’m just working as a librarian and killing a few zombies every now and then. If I had to fight off a vampire clan, then yes, of course I would need fresh blood, but as of now I’m pretty much good.”

“Okay, makes sense.” Pacified, Jongdae strode over to the sleepy-looking cashier who was pawing through a magazine, and set his purchases down. Kyungsoo slowly made his way over the join him, slowly inhaling to taste the scent of stale food, coffee, and sugar. Nasty. He didn’t actually have to breathe, but if he wanted to smell he did need to take in air somehow.

Kyungsoo waited patiently while Jongdae paid, then followed him out the door. If he paid a few people to give him their blood... with his current job, he would probably just about break even. Nah, not worth it.

Jongdae shivered in the autumn night air, and huddled closer to Kyungsoo. Idiot.

“You know I don’t produce any natural body heat, right?” He was usually about room temperature, which was fine for movement. If he was in an extremely cold environment, his limbs did stiffen a bit, but they could be warmed. Not that he felt the cold, but he supposed it was natural for moving things to slow down when chilly.

“Yeah, but you block out the wind and I can pretend.”

Kyungsoo snorted. More excuses, but he found himself not minding very much. Jongdae was fun to talk to, honestly. Speaking of which...

“Why do you keep calling me for little things? Can’t you just go during the day? I have things to do at night that I can’t do during the day?” he complained suddenly.

Jongdae gave him a sickeningly sweet grin. “I do it because you like me so much, Kyungsoo.”

He had a point. “I mean, I guess you could put it like that. But can’t you keep it to a couple times a week and let me get on with my life?”

Jongdae ignored that comment, and looked at him seriously all of a sudden. “Wait, are you serious? Do you actually like me?”

Kyungsoo halted. They were standing on the sidewalk which formed a shortcut through a smaller park between the convenience store and Jongdae’s house. “Yes, I actually like you,” he said, confused. Wasn’t it obvious?

Jongdae looked a little shocked. “I thought you were still on the fence.”

“No?”

“Wait, do you mean ‘like’ as a friend, or ‘like like?’” Jongdae asked, the confusion growing on his face. The warm yellow streetlights in the park accentuated his features in a pleasing way.

“What is this, middle school? We’ve basically been going on dates this entire week, with the amount of flirting you’ve been doing. If I could blush, I would be doing so right now, but yes, I’m attracted to you. Not in love, though, because that takes time when you live for hundreds of years.” Kyungsoo said with a laugh.

“Wow, okay, was that supposed to be obvious? I’m... just really surprised. I never expected you to actually respond to me,” Jongdae exhaled, running a hand through his styled hair and tugging slightly “I couldn’t tell at all.” He rocked back on his heels, an odd expression on his face. “Are you sure?”

“I guess I’ve never been the most explicit about my feelings, but yes, I’m sure. You’ve grown on me quite a bit. I’ve stopped pushing you away when you touch me, I let you hang in the library, and when I smack you for being annoying, I do it as light as I can.” Kyungsoo explained, now starting to get confused himself.

Jongdae took a moment to process this, before replying, “Does this mean we can, like, date or whatever you vampires do?” with a look of growing wonderment on his face. “I honestly thought you were tolerating me at best.”

Kyungsoo reached out an arm to Jongdae and turned him. He could smell the slight tang of decay on the air, and he didn’t want a spot of violence to interrupt their talk. They had been in one place for far too long. “I date like normal people, except for a lot longer, so yes, we could think about dating,” he said, tugging Jongdae into a walking pace. As long as they kept this up, he could go and get rid of the zombies later. “I’d just like to take some time to work everything out because we haven’t really known each other all that long, and I like taking things slow.”

Jongdae walked mechanically, clearly thinking still. “As long as you don’t keep me waiting for months, yeah, sure. Time is a little more important for those of us who have less than a hundred years to live.”

“I didn’t mean not dating, I just meant let’s not move in together tomorrow. I might have lived a few lifetimes, but that doesn’t mean I like deliberating over every decision for a year.”

“Oh. Yes, okay,” Jongdae said, a brilliant smile forming on his face. Kyungsoo liked the way his eyes crinkled and his mouth turned up at the corners. He made a mental note to make Jongdae smile more often. “I can do that. In fact, that’s perfect.”

“Good.” They reached the gate outside Jongdae’s apartment building, and stopped, moving to face each other. “We might as well start right now, then,” Kyungsoo muttered, reaching for Jongdae’s waist. Jongdae looked at him with a confused expression.

“What do you mean by start right now?”

Kyungsoo tugged Jongdae closer so they were inches apart. “This.” He looked into Jongdae’s eyes, down at his lips, and back up again. He grinned, giving Jongdae a view of his elongated fangs, then moved his hands, quickly but carefully pulling Jongdae’s head to the side and wrenching his sweater collar open to expose his neck, bending down to let a breath trickle over the skin there. He could feel Jongdae’s heart rate increase rapidly.

“Just kidding,” he laughed, and snaked his hand around to entwine with the hair on the back of Jongdae’s neck. Kyungsoo leaned in and pressed a delicate kiss to his lips, then pulled back to take in his blown pupils. “What’s romance without a little danger?”

Jongdae dropped his head to Kyungsoo’s shoulder and let out a burst of adrenaline-fueled giggles. “God, you nearly stopped my heart for a second there. I wasn’t expecting that at all.”

Kyungsoo’s other arm went to wrap around Jongdae’s waist. He chuckled himself, running his fingers soothingly up and down his side. “Can’t have you getting complacent. I’m glad you didn’t freak out and run, because then I don’t think we would have worked out.” Kyungsoo dragged Jongdae’s head back up to look him straight in the eyes.

“Realize that I may joke around, but I’ll never bite you or harm you without your permission. And this goes for you, too: if I’m doing something that is hurting you, please tell me, because I’m a lot stronger, and occasionally I’ll forget.”

Jongdae nodded. Kyungsoo could hear his heart pounding. “I’ll do that. But for now, can we kiss again?”

Kyungsoo smiled, and pulled him in.

\--

The next day at the library Kyungsoo, Sehun, and Jongdae’s phones buzzed simultaneously. Jongdae picked up his phone and looked at the message.

“Junmyeon got in touch with Yixing; he’ll be here Saturday, which is tomorrow,” he reported, looking up with a grin. “From what he’s told me, this should be a major lead.”

Sehun let out a quiet whoop. “That’s good. I’ve been doing more research, but I still have no idea what it could be.”

“I’m hoping Yixing is willing to see this through,” Kyungsoo remarked, sticking a bookmark into his place in the card catalog before walking over to stand near Jongdae’s table. He crossed his arms and leaned against it, looking over the array of books Jongdae had spread out. “Ancient Greek art?”

Jongdae tapped the book and nodded. “Yep, I’m trying to incorporate some older design principles into my work, just to see how it turns out.”

“Neat.”

Jongdae lifted an eyebrow. “Thanks.”

Kyungsoo glanced over at Sehun, waiting for the right moment... and there, Sehun had his back turned. He bent down and gave Jongdae a quick kiss. “You’re adorable,” he whispered as quietly as he could manage, then walked back over to the card catalog to get back to work.

Jongdae was blushing. “Hey, you can’t just do that!”

Kyungsoo smirked. “Try and stop me.”

“Do what?” Sehun asked, looking between the two of them. They had told Sehun that they were tentatively dating because they agreed that neither was a fan of hiding things, but that didn’t mean that Kyungsoo was actively going to display affection in front of him. He didn’t need any more teasing in his life. Although... if Sehun started, Kyungsoo could probably pull out his dirt about Junmyeon. He’d keep that one in mind.

“Never you mind,” Jongdae grumbled, turning back to his laptop and typing furiously, cheeks still stained a vibrant pink. Sehun narrowed his eyes.

“I’ll find out. I always do,” he said, and for the rest of the day kept a close eye on them both.

\--

Kyungsoo wanted to know whose genius idea it was to meet for lunch. He was a vampire, for fuck’s sake, he wasn’t supposed to be out in the light. As it was, he was covered head to toe in black, and was using the umbrella he usually used to get from his car into the library for work.

But there they were, sitting in the back section of the restaurant (only after Kyungsoo had complained; Baekhyun and Minseok had originally gotten a table near the window), waiting for Yixing the shaman to show up. It was a quarter to noon, so they still had some time.

Sehun was sniggering and making subtle jokes about his sunglasses, which he was still wearing indoors to try and offset the effects of the blinding sun streaming in the window. Kyungsoo was quickly approaching the point at which he wanted to punch him.

“I swear to god, Sehun Oh, say one more word and I’ll show you why I’m wearing them,” he threatened, fist clenching and nails coming out.

Jongdae ran a soothing hand down his back. “Relax, Kyungsoo. You aren’t usually this easily frustrated; what’s wrong?”

Kyungsoo nearly screamed. He settled for throwing his hands up. “I’m a vampire. It’s daytime. It’s sunny. The sun is giving me a headache. Oh, you didn’t know vampires could get headaches? Well, they can,” he snarled, glaring at Baekhyun who was starting to laugh, “And it makes me angry. Does anyone want to know what happens when a vampire gets angry?”

Chanyeol appeared to be thinking about the question seriously. “I’m guessing you might be inclined to kill or maim something?” he said helpfully, looking proud of himself for a second, then breaking into giggles.

“Yes, very good, class,” Kyungsoo said. “And guess who’s sitting at this table near me, ready for me to kill or maim?”

Junmyeon finally looked up from his phone. “Leave Kyungsoo alone,” he said in a tired voice. He must still be working on figuring out the culprit. “It’s not that funny, and we need his help.”

“But it’s like he has a hangover,” Baekhyun snickered, fiddling with his straw wrapper. Minseok looked like he was trying his hardest to control himself. Kyungsoo made a mental note to give him a good punch later; they were supposed to be friends.

“Which you get quite frequently, so unless you want the rest of us teasing you next time, you’ll shut up about it. And that goes for all of you.” The group nodded, pacified. Kyungsoo sighed, and brought a hand up to rub his temples. He shouldn’t have been behaving like a child, but the whole situation was ridiculous.

Kyungsoo shut his eyes and slid down in his seat, doing his best to relax. Hopefully this would be over soon so he could go back home and sleep until sunset.

“Hey, Junmyeon!” said a new voice. Kyungsoo cracked an eye open. Standing at the head of their table was a man Kyungsoo assumed was Yixing. He had shaggy brown hair and was wearing a scoop neck tank top under a jacket. A faint scent of smoke and something spicy along with a more oppressive odor of incense wafted past Kyungsoo’s nose. It wasn’t a bad smell, just strong. Clearly this guy performed a different kind of magic than Junmyeon.

Junmyeon beamed. “Yixing! I’m glad you could come. This is Sehun, Jongin, Chanyeol, over on the other side is Baekhyun, Minseok, Jongdae, and Kyungsoo.”

The group said their hellos while Yixing dropped into the empty seat beside Junmyeon, setting his phone on the table.

“You mentioned something about zombies?” Yixing said in a cheerful voice, clasping his hands on the table. Too cheerful for the topic and time of day, but that was just Kyungsoo’s opinion.

“Yep.” Junmyeon began to lay out all of his papers, Kyungsoo straightening up to help him. If he was going to be out at this time of day, he might as well make himself useful. “Let me give you a rundown of what we know so far. We’ve had high concentrations of zombie attacks here, here, and here,” Junmyeon pointed out three places on the map, “and they’ve been occurring at a pretty high frequency. They’re also fairly strong. I’m not sure what this means. We’ve been looking up anything we can about zombies and who could have made them, but we haven’t found much of use.”

Yixing nodded. “Well, lucky for you, I’ve done some research on zombies, but first I think we should all eat something.”

“Ah! You’re right, sorry,” Junmyeon exclaimed. “I’ve had this problem weighing on me for about a month now, and I’m very eager to get it resolved.”

Yixing let out a bright peal of laughter, and slapped Junmyeon on the back. “That sounds like the Junmyeon I know. Don’t worry about it, just get some food in your stomach.”

After the group had eaten (Kyungsoo just sat back and shut his eyes) and gotten to know Yixing a little, they settled down to business.

Yixing set down his teacup gently, and pointed a thin finger at the map. “So you say you killed a horde here in the park, but then a week later there were about the same amount there?” 

Minseok nodded. “Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, and I have been spending our nights trying to kill whatever we can, but they just keep coming back. What can we do?”

“From what I can tell, the zombies are being made by someone. That’s far too many to be naturally occurring,” Yixing said slowly, pouring over the research that Junmyeon and Sehun had done.

“Yeah, we figured as much, after killing so many of them,” Minseok groaned, still working on a massive stack of pancakes. Not only was he a werewolf with a voracious appetite, he was also an avid fan of exercise. Kyungsoo assumed that he must have gone to the gym not long before their lunch as his hair had been wet when they arrived.

Yixing made a noise of agreement. “And there are too many and too planned for it to be a demon.” At this, Junmyeon seemed surprised.

“Why can’t it be a demon? I thought they were powerful enough,” he said, looking confused. Wait a second, did that mean all that work they did was for nothing?

“A demon wouldn’t bother going through all this work. They’re more likely to send just a few zombies or a bunch of lesser demons instead,” Yixing explained, tapping one of the papers. “You’re looking for someone human with magical powers, so a wizard like Junmyeon, perhaps a shaman like me.”

“Well. Fuck,” Junmyeon swore. That wasn’t a frequent occurrence. Kyungsoo heaved a sigh. This wasn’t going to be over quickly, he could tell already. “If it’s human, then it has a higher degree of consciousness. We’re not dealing with pure power here, we’re dealing with both power and intelligence.”

“So what do we do? Sit and wait around for the person to show themselves, then try to kill them?” Kyungsoo asked, slightly annoyed at the prospect of a long-term project.

Yixing shook his head. “It would be best to figure out who and what he is so we know the best way to attack him, and then catch him by surprise. If he can raise this many zombies, he’s going to be more powerful than Junmyeon and me put together.”

Baekhyun whistled. “Then do we have any hope of getting him?”

“I’m not sure,” Yixing said with a dangerous glint in his eye, “It depends on how hard we try.”

\--

Their next surprise came in the form of another text from Junmyeon a week later. Jongdae was at home today; he had cited a massive load of design work to do.

“Vampire attacks, Junmyeon says,” Sehun read out. He looked up at Kyungsoo. “That’s not good, is it?”

Fuck. No, it wasn’t. Vampires, especially if they were on the side of their enemy, would probably be drinking fresh blood. And if they were recruited to attack, well, they were probably fairly powerful.

Kyungsoo sat down on his stool at their desk. “No, it’s not good. I definitely can’t fight off a vampire with my current strength. I’ll have to up my blood intake.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. Fuck.

He could feel Sehun’s eyes on him. “Hyung, what exactly would drinking more blood do?”

“It makes me stronger and faster. However, it does not mean I become a better fighter. My skills do not increase, only the physical capabilities of my body.” Kyungsoo looked up a Sehun. “If the other vampires are older or more experienced in fighting, I won’t be able to hold them off.”

Hopping off his chair to pace around the desk, Kyungsoo continued to explain his dilemma. “Zombies are relatively weak. It’s easy for me to kill them because their bite doesn’t affect me, and compared to me, they are slow. Other vampires are usually more powerful than me because I’ve spent most of my years learning about science, art, and history. I’ve just been living as a human, over and over again, not learning how fight.” Well, that wasn’t totally true. Kyungsoo stopped and fixed his gaze on Sehun, who was staring at him curiously.

“Let me take that back. I’ve been doing that for the latter 200 years of my life. The first... we’ll say ninety, perhaps, were spent in what you now call Korea under the reign of a vampire clan. After escaping from my maker, I was captured by his rival, who was certainly kinder. There, I learned to fight for some time, and worked as a guard, but eventually was released.” He looked down at his hands. That had been a very different time.

“But when my old master was killed, he was replaced by someone who brutally slaughtered anyone who defied him. So I left. Point is, I’ve had ten years of training on how to fight, and a relatively peaceful 250 years to follow. I’ve lost some of that skill, and anyone who has been training longer will overpower me easily in my current state. I’ll need help to kill any of my kind if they show up here.”

Sehun sat back heavily. “Shit.”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo replied, “Plus they’ll have fresh blood.”

“Fuck,” Sehun said, actually starting to look worried.

Kyungsoo waved a hand. “Don’t worry too much, though. I’ll find a way through this. I’ve been doing it for 327 years, I can do it again.”

Sehun let out a bleak peal of laughter. “Wow, that was so reassuring, hyung.”

Kyungsoo gave him a sardonic grin. “No problem, Sehunnie.”

\--

After work, Kyungsoo settled into his favorite chair and got Junmyeon on the phone.

“Hello?”

Kyungsoo shifted. “Hey, Junmyeon. I think we need to have a little chat about vampires.”

Junmyeon sounded stressed. “Yes, yes we do. I’m unsure of their exact numbers, but so far we’ve seen less than five all together at once.”

“Five is still a lot, you know. I’m only one mildly adequate semi-strong vampire.”

“I realize this. Minseok and Baekhyun can help you out with this one, since all we have to worry about is strength and intuition, and not the possibility of infection.”

“Yeah, but we have to worry about strength and intuition. There’s a high possibility that these vampires are more powerful than I am.”

“... I didn’t think about that. How powerful are you?”

“How do you expect me to quantify that?”

“Um... is there a unit for power?” Junmyeon mused.

Kyungsoo restrained himself from smashing his face into any available surfaces. “No.”

“Okay... well how would describe your power level, then?”

“Is this fucking Dungeons and Dragons?”

There was silence from the other side of the line.

“Junmyeon, does that silence imply you play that game? As an actual wizard, you play that game?”

“... Noooo, why would I play that game?”

“Oh, you fucking liar, you totally do,” Kyungsoo laughed.

Junmyeon coughed awkwardly. “Anyway, do you think you have any way to defeat the vampires?”

Kyungsoo rose and began pacing. “The only way I can think to do it is to have a strong element of surprise. As in, we trace their movements, and then Baekhyun, Minseok, and I jump out and surprise them, maybe kill one, then run away, and then repeat the process until all of them are dead.”

There was a brief moment of silence from Junmyeon, and then he replied, “Wow, you’re actually really good at planning, Kyungsoo.”

“Well, you’re actually a child when you aren’t the leader of a ragtag group of supernatural creatures.”

“Oh come on, I’m not that bad.”

“You’re a whiny piece of shit in real life, Junmyeon, don’t you dare try and deny it.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Can I trust you to do this on your own? Yixing, Sehun, and I have been busy with more research. If Jongdae knew more, we would consider asking him, but... I just don’t want him to feel useless in this situation.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. Good thing Junmyeon couldn’t see him now. Jongdae was glad he didn’t have to fight. “I’ll give him something to do, don’t worry. He can help with surveillance or research. Maybe looking up the history of this area. I think we have a few books about prominent figures and basic history in the library that wouldn’t be in Sehun’s library. Who knows, we might actually find something useful.”

Junmyeon blew out a breath. Kyungsoo winced, and held the phone a few inches away from his ear. Good hearing had its downsides. “Thanks, Kyungsoo. Alright, I’ll leave you to it. Text or call me with any updates.”

“You got it.” Kyungsoo hung up and plopped back down, allowing his arm to drop to hang off the armrest of the chair. He brought his other arm up to check the time lazily, and groaned. It was his turn to run around killing zombies tonight. Well, if he met any vampires he would just run away. Kyungsoo was pretty good at that.

\--

With luck, Kyungsoo didn’t meet any vampires that night. He turned up to work the next day slightly groggy, however, and resolved to spend the day sipping at his juice boxes, five of which he brought with him. Good thing he had increased the rate of his deliveries, although he couldn’t keep that up forever.

He was taking a slurp when Jongdae waltzed in, laptop under his arm. He stopped short at the desk, and gave Kyungsoo a questioning look.

Kyungsoo paused in drinking to explain. “If I’m going to be fighting vampires, I need it,” he said, shrugging.

Jongdae nodded. “Fair enough. I’m sorry you have to do most of the work on your own, though.”

Kyungsoo waved him off. “This is nothing, don’t worry. I’ve been in worse situations.”

“If this isn’t bad, I can only begin to imagine what your worst situation was like,” Jongdae shuddered, and moved to sit down.

Remembering Junmyeon’s request from last night, Kyungsoo laid a hand on his shoulder, stopping him, and asked, “Are you busy?”

Jongdae shook his head. “Not particularly, why?” he said with a questioning look.

Kyungsoo picked up the small stack of books he had found earlier in his day, and plopped them on Jongdae’s usual table. “Junmyeon thought you were feeling useless, which is total bullshit, but he requested that I give you some work to do. This is actually important, though: these are books about the history of this town, and they might give us some clue as to what’s going on. Would you mind reading them and letting us know if you find anything?”

Jongdae groaned, but agreed. “Sure, I’ll do it. But Junmyeon seriously thought I felt useless?” He joined Kyungsoo at the table and sat down, picking up a book and flipping through it.

Kyungsoo nodded. “I was talking to him on the phone last night. I didn’t think it was right to keep that from you.”

“...Thank you. I actually really appreciate that.”

Smiling, Kyungsoo leaned towards where Jongdae was seated, and ran his fingers through Jongdae’s hair. “No problem. I’m not a fan of keeping secrets in relationships.” He moved to walk away, but Jongdae had hooked a finger through one of his belt loops.

“What, no kiss?” he said with something Kyungsoo supposed was a pout.

Kyungsoo shook his head. “Blood breath, idiot. Trust me, you don’t want to put your mouth anywhere near mine right now.”

Jongdae’s eyes widened. “Oh. Right, I never even thought about that.”

Kyungsoo thought for a moment, then walked quickly back into the shelves, looking for a particular book. It should be around there somewhere... yes, here it is. He pulled the book out and returned to where Jongdae was sitting, placing the book in front of him.

“Read this one first,” he said, tapping its cover with a nail, “It’s the best and most accurate description of vampires I know to exist.”

Picking up the tome, Jongdae inspected the cover. “How did you get an accurate book about vampires?” he inquired, looking back up at Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo grinned, showing his teeth. “I wrote it.”

“Wait, seriously?” Jongdae’s eyes bulged, and he looked back at the cover, then to Kyungsoo again. “You wrote this? But that’s not your name.”

“I wrote it under a different name. In fact, I’m technically working at this library under an alternate name. I have to change it now and then to look like I’m not the oldest human in the world,” he reasoned, walking back to the desk. Fucking card catalog was taking forever. They would never fucking finish this. Even Kyungsoo didn’t have this much patience.

“Why the hell did you write a book about vampires?”

He shrugged. “I had the time, and I felt like it. Plus, now I can give it to people if they have questions. It also includes some neat bits of mythology and theory behind how we work as a species; you should read it closely.” Kyungsoo picked up one card with dubious handwriting covering the back. Why the hell would someone write in pen? And in illegible handwriting? What was he supposed to do with this, eat it?

“Damn. Did you make money off this, too?”

“Yep, a decent amount. It wasn’t a best-seller or anything, but it was mildly popular among certain communities,” Kyungsoo said absentmindedly, still trying to decipher the words on the back of the card. Whatever, it probably didn’t matter anyway. He typed the information from the front of the card into the computer, and moved onto the next one.

“Shit. That makes me feel... I don’t know, inadequate compared to you.”

Well. Kyungsoo looked up at Jongdae, who was still looking at the book’s cover. “Jongdae,” he began, but Jongdae cut him off.

“I know that’s ridiculous, and I’m being silly, but it’s hard to rationalize, you know? Knowing that I’ll never write a book, or spend 100 years in Europe, or do even half the things you will in your lifetime,” Jongdae went off, setting the book down.

Kyungsoo frowned. “If you’d like, we can take a year or two and I can give you the highlight reel, minus all the shitty parts where I almost died.”

Jongdae finally met his eyes. “I’m not sure if that’s what I want.”

Just then, Sehun came strolling back in, humming some stupid Korean song that had recently come out (Kyungsoo was fucking tired of hearing that song). Perfect, just what he needed. Or, wait, maybe Sehun could help him out with this one.

Sehun halted in his tracks. “Damn, guys, I could cut this tension with a knife. And it’s definitely not the sexual kind,” he remarked, turning to Kyungsoo, “Hey asshole, what did you do this time?”

“Why are you assuming it was me?” Kyungsoo scowled. Sehun mouthed along with his words to mock him.

“Because it’s usually you.”

“It’s not something I said, it’s who I am, this time at least.”

Sehun’s eyes widened and he clapped once. “Oh, is this about the, ‘Kyungsoo’s a vampire and he’s so much more accomplished than I am and it’s making me feel shitty about myself?’ thing? Because I felt like that at first, too, Jongdae.”

Jongdae lifted an eyebrow but nodded. “How the hell did you guess that?”

“It happens to everyone eventually,” Sehun said, sitting down, and then continued, “Here’s the deal: for all the things that Kyungsoo has done, and can do, there is so much more that he never can. Believe it or not, he’s paying for all of that time he’s had. He has no memory of his family. He hasn’t seen a sunrise in 300 years. He’s stuck inside, and he can’t eat anything other than blood, which has to get boring once in a while. The only offspring he can have are any people he bites, and even then he doesn’t really raise them.”

“That’s not true, blood is pretty great,” Kyungsoo interjected, before he realized that wasn’t helping his case.

Slumping in his chair, Jongdae ran a hand through his hair. “You’ve got a good point.” Wait. That gave Kyungsoo an idea.

“I could tell you about all the times I almost died, or failed at something,” he suggested helpfully, “There are a lot of those. How about all of my embarrassing moments? I’ve got 300 years of being awkward to talk about, trust me, there’s a lot.”

Jongdae seemed to finally relax, and he laughed. “Alright, that makes me feel better. Thanks, now whenever I feel like shit I’ll just ask you to tell me about one of those times.”

Sehun smiled. “Good. I’m glad you’ve seen the light. Now get reading, Kyungsoo is actually a pretty good writer,” he said, gesturing towards the book on vampires.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next will be probably tomorrow if not sooner.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did someone say fight scene?

Kyungsoo rather liked climbing trees. It was easily within his physical abilities, and there was something calming about swaying in the wind with the branches.

Baekhyun, on the other hand, was not having fun.

“I have to drop down from here?” he asked, eyeing the distance dubiously. “I’m honestly not sure if I’ll be okay. Are you sure we can’t go lower?”

Shaking his head, Kyungsoo peered down the darkened road. “Nope, you reek, so you need to stay up here.” Was that movement up ahead?

Baekhyun whined, and Kyungsoo hissed for him to be quiet. That was definitely movement, and they were coming fast. Shit, they could probably smell Baekhyun, and had come after them.

“Get ready,” he called out softly, and Baekhyun’s hackles rose. He’d be fine.

Kyungsoo sprang down from the tree, landing lightly on the balls of his feet. No sense in prolonging the agony. He brought his arms up, ready to throw a few punches.

The group of three vampires came to a halt in front of him. “Who the fuck are you?” one of them sneered, flicking his nails out.

“More importantly, who the fuck are you?” Kyungsoo replied, observing them from his place five meters away. It was totally dark outside, but he could still see their faces. The trio were all wearing jackets of some dark color. Two were brown-skinned, and the other was sort of tall and pale with bleach-blond hair. Kyungsoo blinked. Spike-wannabe, perhaps? Cliché.

“That’s none of your business,” the shortest one said, clearly the leader of the small group, “All you need to know is that we’re here to kill you and your little wolfy friend.” Friend. Singular. Oh! They didn’t know about Minseok, who was patrolling nearby. Kyungsoo allowed himself a moment to breathe, then brought his guard back up. That wasn’t a huge advantage, but definitely one he could work with. The werewolves’ hearing was better than his, so perhaps he could call out to Minseok at some point. Hmm. He should invest in a dog whistle.

Kyungsoo snorted. “Right, as if you weaklings could kill me.” Bluffing occasionally worked; he’d take what he could get. “How old are you, anyway?”

“I’m 103 in four days,” the bleach-blonde one said proudly, striking a pose. Kyungsoo blinked. That wasn’t as bad as he had been expecting.

The leader smacked him. “Shut up, Dallas, we can’t have them knowing how powerful we are,” he hissed. Idiot, the damage was already done.

“That’s not important,” the other one said, revealing his claws. “We’re just here to kill you, so obviously when you’re dead it’s not going to matter. Neal,” he said, turning to the leader, “Can I go shred him now?”

“Omar--” Neal began, then sighed and shook his head. “So much for the plan. Yeah, whatever, just go kill him. Watch out for his teeth, or something.”

Omar grinned, his own brilliantly white teeth glinting in the darkness, then leaped forward at Kyungsoo. These guys were definitely on fresh blood, shit.

He had enough sense to dodge out of the way so that Omar hit the ground hard, directly where he had been standing. That was step one out of many.

As he braced himself for Omar’s second attack, he heard Neal saying, “Dallas, you go get the wolf in the tree. I’ll take care of this one with Omar; he looks feisty.” Kyungsoo snarled. He was not feisty. He was poised and powerful, dammit.

Omar leaped back at him. The vampire didn’t seem to have much in terms of fighting ability, but he was very, very strong. This was not looking in Kyungsoo’s favor.

He dodged a few of Omar’s punches, but took the third and fourth to his temple and stomach. Doubling over, Kyungsoo wheezed and fell to the ground face first when Neal shoved him from behind. Damn. Okay, he got it now, Neal was the smart one, Omar was strong, and Dallas?

Baekhyun came sprinting out of the forest in his wolf form, Dallas nearly at his tail. Dallas was fast.

Kyungsoo rolled over and sprinted out of the attacking range of the two fighting him, narrowly missing another of those killer punches from Omar. How was he going to fight them? They each clearly had a strong point... so maybe he would just use that against them, and attack using whatever they didn’t have.

He called out to Baekhyun. “Stop running, you coward, and fight him.” Hearing an answering indignant bark, he smiled grimly and turned back to face his own enemies head on. Neal seemed to be directing Omar towards him with a few muttered words in his ear. Hmm.

When Omar came leaping at him, Kyungsoo tore towards Neal, using his claws to scratch before delivering a solid kick to his chest, knocking him down. It wasn’t that easy, however, because once Kyungsoo was on top of him and throwing punches, Omar hit him from behind, sending him sprawling.

Kyungsoo rolled, then straightened up, spitting out dirt and leaves. Fuck. Well, the best method to defeat them would be to take out Neal first, and Omar second. Something about cutting off the head of the snake. That was a thing in history books, right? He didn’t have time to think about that now, because Omar was rushing at him again.

Ducking behind a tree, Kyungsoo attempted to avoid the attack, but Omar changed course last second, managing to clip him on the shoulder, hard. Shit. Kyungsoo ran off a distance, and reached a hand up to feel his shoulder. That hurt. He hadn’t felt that kind of pain for a good twenty years. 

Not only was it hurt, but his shoulder seemed to be dislocated. Fuck. He didn’t have time for this. While running in an arc around the offending pair, Kyungsoo gripped ahold of his arm, which was dangling slightly, and pushed up and in. With a sickening crackle-pop, his arm slid back into place. Kyungsoo rolled his shoulder. It still hurt, and would be sore tomorrow, but at least now he could use it to fight.

Okay. No more playing Mr. Nice Guy, it was time to get his teeth out. Sensing Omar behind him, Kyungsoo leaped up and grabbed onto a tree branch, allowing Omar to pass under him and then dropping down, crushing him into the forest floor. That was a favorite technique of his. As Kyungsoo was a smaller person, he had learned how to utilize his surroundings to his advantage. For example, he used Omar’s body as a springboard to launch himself at Neal and bring him down. Hopefully now that Omar was down, he would have a few seconds to do as much damage to the most clever of the trio.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Baekhyun ripping into Dallas. Flecks of the wolf’s blood were showering the earth, but he seemed to have the upper hand for now. Good. Kyungsoo had his own battle to worry about.

He lashed out with his claws, shredding Neal’s skin to ribbons before sinking his claws into his neck, bending down, and plunging his teeth into his artificially inflated jugular. Normally an injury like the one Kyungsoo just created in Neal’s throat would heal quickly and not be too much of an issue for him, but if he managed to keep it up, the blood circulating through Neal’s system would quickly drain out.

Neal, however, was not going down without a fight. His claws sunk into Kyungsoo’s chest, and Kyungsoo grunted from the pain, kneeing Neal in the stomach in retaliation.

The blood hitting his tongue tasted strange until he remembered they had been feasting on live humans. It was delicious, and he wanted to sit there all night and keep drinking, but he couldn’t do that. Kyungsoo ripped Neal’s throat open with his teeth, using his claws to tug it open further. The blood sprayed his face, neck, and clothes. It smelled amazing. But Kyungsoo forced himself to spit it out, and detached himself, sprinting away from Neal’s now completely dead body. The vampire died with a look of fear on his face, scrabbling helplessly at Kyungsoo’s chest, the light draining from his eyes slowly. Fool. If he wasn’t powerful, he should have drank more blood to become stronger. Smarts were only good if you had the power to back them up, as Kyungsoo had learned from his own failings many years ago.

Behind him, Omar let out a roar of rage, the sound grating on Kyungsoo’s sensitive ears. He had been lucky so far, but Omar would be far more difficult to kill.

He glanced to his left, where Baekhyun was on top of Dallas, huge paws pressing him to the ground. The vampire was using his nails to rake Baekhyun’s chest, but the wolf stood firm. He used his jaws to crush Dallas’s neck, shaking him a few times, slightly gentler than Kyungsoo would have done. Was Baekhyun afraid to kill it? There wasn’t time to find out.

Kyungsoo darted over, gripped one of Dallas’s flailing arms near the base, planted a foot on his shoulder blade, and pulled with all of his strength. The arm only partially detached, muscles audibly ripping and tendons tearing, but that was enough. He stuck his hand between Baekhyun’s jaws, gripped the flesh of the vampire’s neck, and tore it open. Good enough; Baekhyun could take care of it from there. In the meantime he had to worry about Omar, who was now pissed and still very strong.

Turning, he faced Omar head on, trying to prevent him from getting to Baekhyun. Claws came out and the two of them dug into each other, neither holding back. Kyungsoo could feel the sting of cuts up and down his face, a few coming dangerously close to his neck. Omar sprang up, taking him by surprise, and took him down, landing on top of him with his claws poised dangerously in the air. He held one hand around Kyungsoo’s neck, and prepared to sink the other into his throat.

This was the closest that Kyungsoo had come to dying in over a hundred years. 

His thoughts raced, everything slowing down.

He could be dead in another three seconds.

And then another weight landed on top of Omar, tearing the stronger vampire off him. Minseok! He must have heard Omar’s roar, and come running! Kyungsoo took a moment to inhale, allowing the smell of blood to wash over him. He made a mental note to thank Minseok after this. Kyungsoo would be dead if not for him.

Stumbling up, Kyungsoo coughed to clear his bruised throat (the damage would only show when his stomach was completely full). He surveyed the situation. Baekhyun had finally finished off Dallas, whose body was slowly blackening along with Neal’s. Omar and Minseok (in wolf form) were circling each other, snarling and growling at each other. Omar’s pupils had gone completely black; clearly he was angry at the loss of his two companions. Well. They would just have to put him out of his misery, then.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo joined Minseok, and all three of them simultaneously began to close in on Omar, wary of any attacks. As Kyungsoo predicted, Omar sprang up and on top of Minseok, allowing him and Baekhyun to pin his arms and scratch the living hell out of him before Omar overcame them with his strength and pulled away, however not before hitting Minseok in the chest with a solid punch. Kyungsoo heard something crack, and winced. That would be one of Minseok’s ribs. Luckily, werewolves healed at a higher rate than humans. He’d be as good as new in under two weeks, as long as he ate enough and rested.

Minseok rolled over and pushed himself up, shaking his coat to dislodge the leaves and twigs stuck in his fur.

“We have to avoid his leaps,” Kyungsoo said, gritting his teeth. “If you get pinned too many times, you’re dead.” Both wolves made a nodding motion.

“New plan, just dart in and attack, one after the other, ready go,” he shouted, then ran at Omar, throwing punches and getting hit a few times in return, then falling back to let the wolves do their damage. They repeated the motions for several rounds, not leaving Omar the chance to pounce. This way, they slowly wore him down, while taking less damage themselves. When Kyungsoo deemed it safe, he motioned for the two wolves to stop. Time for stage two.

He whispered, knowing only they would be able to hear, “I’ll come in from the front, you two flank him and try to hold his arms down long enough for me to get to his throat.”

Minseok barked, indicating agreement. Kyungsoo’s gaze darted around the forest floor quickly, looking for anything that he could use as a weapon. Nothing, and Omar was too strong for his skin to be pierced by a mere tree branch. He’d just have to try and use the same maneuver he had performed on Neal.

With a hand gesture from Kyungsoo, the wolves ran in and threw themselves at Omar, who did his best to protect himself in his weakened state (he was still stronger than Kyungsoo, something he took a moment to marvel at). Kyungsoo then leaped on top of him, and while he fought to regain control of his arms, he sunk his claws into Omar’s chest instead of his neck after a sudden idea.

“STOP,” he yelled, and everyone froze. Omar let out a low growl, but was aware that his life held from a delicate thread. He was bleeding out as it was, but any sudden movement and Kyungsoo could have it over in a second.

He jostled his hand in Omar’s chest, and the other vampire let out a scream of pain. “Who are you working for?” he spat into Omar’s face. “You might be almost dead, but I can make the last moments of your existence very, very painful if you don’t comply.”

Omar shook his head, and Kyungsoo sunk his claws deeper into Omar’s chest. It was a long shot, but they might be able to get some information out of him yet.

The veins on Omar’s neck stood out, and another screech of pain escaped his mouth. Kyungsoo smiled, more of a grimace than anything. “I’ll give you one more chance, then I’m making your death as painful as possible. Remember, nothing will matter once you’re dead.”

“Necromancer,” Omar shouted out, then while Kyungsoo was distracted used one last burst of strength to push his body up and further impale himself on Kyungsoo’s claws, effectively killing himself. His body slumped, eyes going glassy, and flesh already beginning to decay.

Kyungsoo pulled his claws out, disgusted. Fucking cowards, all of them. He stood up, taking in the damage around him. Trees bore claw marks (probably from Baekhyun), there was an overwhelming stench of blood, and the ashy remains of Neal and Dallas were being blown away by the wind.

“Well.” he said heavily. “I’m glad that’s over.”

\--

The three of them stumbled wearily back to Junmyeon’s house after, each nursing their own injuries. Kyungsoo’s shoulder had gone numb, but he knew he’d be feeling the bruising tomorrow. It should heal fairly quickly; however for now it would still be rather painful.

Kyungsoo knocked, as Minseok was supporting a still-bleeding Baekhyun. They would probably need Junmyeon to do something about the lacerations on his chest, as they looked rather deep. The smell of his blood was tangy on the air, and Kyungsoo wiped a hand across his brow.

His fingers came back bloody. Shit, he had forgotten to clean Neal’s blood off himself. Kyungsoo would prefer not to be seen like this, but the door had already opened, and there stood Sehun staring at them blankly.

“Holy shit,” Sehun eventually gasped. Their group had decided to wait up at Junmyeon’s house, as they were worried about Kyungsoo and the two wolves. At least there would be plenty of people to care for Minseok and Baekhyun.

Junmyeon came hurrying to the door, turning pale at the sight of them, but allowed Kyungsoo to step over the threshold. He ducked under Baekhyun’s other arm and took some of his weight off Minseok, who gave him a grateful smile. Kyungsoo took off his shoes and socks as to not get blood on Junmyeon’s floors.

“Any ideas as to the extent of your injuries?” Junmyeon asked, helping Baekhyun and Minseok through the door, and down the hall to the kitchen, where a sheet had been thrown over the large table. Kyungsoo followed.

“Minseok has some broken ribs, possibly internal bleeding, and the usual cuts and scratches. Baekhyun took a clawing to the chest, but nothing should be broken. He’s losing blood, though, so patch him up first,” Kyungsoo listed, ticking things off on his fingers.

“What about you?” Sehun asked, still staring at him. Kyungsoo waved him off.

“I’m fine; this isn’t my blood. I’m a bit scratched up, and my shoulder got dislocated, but everything should be healed by tomorrow,” he said tiredly. He helped Junmyeon arrange Baekhyun on the table, then slumped on a nearby chair.

Junmyeon opened his refrigerator and threw Kyungsoo a carton of blood from within, which he caught, then nodded in thanks. The rest of the group slowly trickled into the room, most of them taken aback at Kyungsoo’s appearance. Junmyeon was already getting to work on Baekhyun when Chanyeol asked, “So, did you kill them?”

“Yep,” said Minseok, who had his head resting on his crossed arms on the table, “Mostly thanks to Kyungsoo and Baekhyun, but all three are dead.”

At this, Kyungsoo looked up. “You saved my life, Minseok. That deserves credit.”

“You would have done the same for me, don’t worry about it.”

“Still, thank you.”

Baekhyun groaned from the table, and lifted a hand, minimizing the movement of the cuts on his chest, which were slowly shrinking thanks to something that Junmyeon was pouring on them, letting off some blueish smoke. “Let’s not forget how Baekhyun took down a vampire almost all on his own, and got all cut up doing it.”

Kyungsoo laughed. “Thanks, Baekhyun. That really helped. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

Baekhyun made a pleased noise, and closed his eyes to allow Junmyeon to continue working on him. Kyungsoo took a sip of his drink. Right, he was still covered in blood.

“Um... can I borrow a set of clothes from anyone?” he asked tentatively, standing. Junmyeon looked up and nodded.

“Jongdae, you know where my stuff is, right? Go with Kyungsoo. Sehun, you stay here, I need you to help me with these two,” he said, indicating the two injured members of their party.

Kyungsoo pulled his keys and wallet out of his pocket, throwing them on the table. They had missed the vast majority of the spray of blood, which was good. “There should be enough money in there to buy a decent amount of takeout, so buy a lot of food. Baekhyun and Minseok will be hungry in a bit,” he announced, then followed Jongdae up the stairs. He could hear the cheers of Yixing, Chanyeol, and Jongin as they walked, and he smiled.

When they reached Junmyeon’s bathroom, Jongdae shut the door after them and faced Kyungsoo, a strange look on his face.

“This... is so different than what I’m normally used to in a relationship. All the blood...” His hand came up Kyungsoo’s face, but Kyungsoo ducked away.

“You can touch me after I shower,” Kyungsoo said, wary of Jongdae’s reaction. “I don’t want you getting any of this mess on you.”

Jongdae nodded. “That’s understandable. Can we talk, though?”

“Of course. I would, however, prefer to do so while clean. You can talk to me while I shower if you’d like.”

“Oh, fantastic. Just what I need, a naked boyfriend just a shower curtain away.”

Kyungsoo nearly flicked Jongdae for that, but instead he reached under Junmyeon’s bathroom counter and pulled out a plastic trash bag to put his bloody clothes in. “Go find something for me to wear while I change?”

“Sure, sure, whatever.” Jongdae backed out rolling his eyes, and shut the door behind him. Kyungsoo stripped quickly and efficiently, being sure not to get any blood on Junmyeon’s bathroom floor. He turned on the water, and stepped in, watching the pink immediately begin to start swirling down the drain.

Jongdae knocked, then stepped back into the bathroom. Kyungsoo could see his shadow through the translucent shower door.

“I have clothes for you,” he said, sitting somewhere near the shower walls.

Kyungsoo picked up Junmyeon’s shampoo bottle and began scrubbing himself down. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know, it’s just weird seeing you covered in blood like it’s no big deal. You killed three guys tonight, and I’m just wondering how you’re okay with all that, and with all the violence,” Jongdae said, a slight tremor in his voice.

Kyungsoo paused in his washing. “It was hard at first, you know. I didn’t want to harm anyone, but I did what I had to in order to survive.” He stared down at his hands. It was a little hard to live with what he’d done on bad days, but he’d mostly come to terms with it. “There are things I regret doing, and times I wish I hadn’t had to kill, but I am who I am, and I’ve accepted that.”

Jongdae shuddered. “I don’t think I could.”

“And I’m not asking you to,” Kyungsoo said, doing his best to get the last of the dried blood out of his hair. He’d have to wash again when he got home, but this was good enough for now. “And I’m not asking you to accept what I’ve done, because it’s hard to think about. I’m not a good person, and that can be hard for some people.”

“I’ll get used to it eventually; it’s that all of this was sprung on me so suddenly. Hell, I knew Junmyeon was a wizard, but I didn’t know it was this violent and this involved,” Jongdae let out a sigh.

Kyungsoo shut off the water. “Towel?” he asked. While he didn’t really have an issue with nudity, he didn’t want his and Jongdae’s relationship to advance that far just yet. They had to resolve the whole zombie-vampire-necromancer thing first.

“Oh, yeah, um, sure.” Jongdae leapt up, and there came the sound of a closet shutting and opening. Kyungsoo opened the shower door a bit, and Jongdae’s hand thrust a fluffy lavender towel inside. Junmyeon had strange tastes sometimes.

Kyungsoo took the towel with a word of thanks, and proceeded to dry himself off while Jongdae waited. After he finished, he wrapped the towel around his waist and opened the shower door to find Jongdae with his hands clasped over his lap, studiously avoiding looking at him. Kyungsoo nudged him with a toe.

“Are you upset about something?”

Jongdae looked up, startled. “What? Oh, no, not at all, I’m fine, just fine,” he laughed awkwardly. His cheeks were slightly flushed. Ah. That would explain a lot. He’d let Jongdae sort his problem out on his own. 300 years allowed you to be a little more open with sex and sexuality.

Kyungsoo picked up the shirt that Jongdae had draped over the counter, and slipped it on. It was just about his size, and long sleeved. Lovely. He sorted through the rest of the stack to find a pair of underwear, slipping them on under his towel, then letting it drop to the ground.

“Jongdae, if you’re going to sit there and blatantly stare at my ass, you have to say something,” Kyungsoo said, humming to himself as he slid the pair of fitted pants up his legs.

Jongdae twitched, and averted his gaze, the color in his cheeks deepening. “Sorry, I should have left or something,” he muttered.

Fully dressed, Kyungsoo turned around to fix him with a glare. “Own it, Jongdae. Admit it, you were staring, and you liked what you saw.”

Jongdae looked vaguely afraid. “I was staring, and I liked what I saw,” he recited dutifully.

Kyungsoo smiled, and offered him a hand up. When Jongdae took it, he pulled Jongdae close to him, and kissed him breathless. “That’s what I like. Don’t be ashamed of your actions,” he whispered into Jongdae’s lips, then bent down to pick up the bag with his bloody clothes. Kyungsoo tugged him out the bathroom door and back down the stairs, Jongdae laughing the whole while.

When the pair of them entered the kitchen together holding hands, a newly healed yet still rather pale Baekhyun raised his fork and pointed it at them.

“Hey! When the fuck did that happen, and why didn’t you tell me?” he shouted around the chicken in his mouth.

Sehun snickered. “Like two weeks ago, dumbass, how did you not notice? Kyungsoo’s been super gross lately, and Jongdae has been looking simultaneously more and less scared of him.”

Baekhyun went on to protest, but Kyungsoo just forced Jongdae to sit down and eat. Food was good for thinking, and Jongdae had a lot of thinking to do. The rest of the group made exclamations about their relationship, Chanyeol claiming he had known it all along, but all of Kyungsoo’s attention was focused on the pretty blush adorning Jongdae’s cheeks. What a lovely way to end the night.

\--

After that, they unanimously decided to start working harder. Now, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, Minseok, and occasionally Chanyeol were all walking around every night, looking for anything that might be a danger to the humans of the area.

Junmyeon had sat and stared when Kyungsoo told him what Omar had said, about their enemy being a “necromancer.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Junmyeon mumbled, scratching his head. “I mean, do necromancers still exist these days? I thought those practices were deemed outdated long ago.”

Yixing had stood and gone off in search of a book on necromancers, coming back with a thick tome that smelled something awful. “Apparently they do still exist; it’s just not very common anymore,” he said, flipping through the index of the book.

“Interesting,” Junmyeon muttered, leaning over the book with him. “Well, we’ll have to read through all of this, so I better start now.”

Kyungsoo wasn’t sure what that would accomplish, so he just nodded along with them and resolved to kill more zombies. Which he did: the zombies were coming in larger groups, now, with no need to have a bait present.

It was a night like that, with him and Chanyeol teamed up on one side of town, Minseok and Baekhyun on the other. The pair of them were walking in the area near Jongdae’s apartment, Chanyeol trying to make shapes with his flames in the air.

“Hyung, did you see that one?” he said excitedly after managing to keep a heart burning in the air for about five seconds.

“Yep, I saw it. I’m glad you’re learning to control your fire better; I’m sure Sehun feels a lot better about having you in his house now,” Kyungsoo laughed quietly.

Chanyeol nodded, and somehow managed to extinguish his fingertips. “He even let me touch a book yesterday. I was so happy I nearly lit my head on fire, but I stopped myself,” he said in his deep voice that seemed to crackle on some tones. Chanyeol’s hair was dyed a brilliant red, which he claimed fit his persona. Kyungsoo agreed.

“What do you study, anyway? You never said,” Kyungsoo asked absently, sniffing for zombies. None yet, but there was a decidedly rank tone to the air.

“Chemistry,” Chanyeol said proudly, “That way if something catches fire, I can blame it on my experiment.”

Kyungsoo looked over at him. “Isn’t there a lot of theory involved, too?”

“Yeah, but I don’t get very excited about that, because I have to focus, so the fire isn’t much of a problem. I’m thinking of studying nuclear chemistry as a focus, but I’m not really sure yet.”

“That’s good for you; I think you would really excel in that area.”

“Thanks! Jongin said something like that too, when I told him,” Chanyeol replied, focusing on the palm of his hand to create a small fireball. He tossed it in the air, and caught it in his mouth, burping out a small plume of smoke. “Excuse me.”

“And if all else fails, you could be a magician or a circus performer,” Kyungsoo joked, “I bet people would spend days wondering how you did those things.”

Chanyeol laughed loudly, his hair catching on fire and lighting up the night. “They would. That life isn’t for me, though, I kind of want to stay here. At least, for now.”

Kyungsoo nodded. “It’s nice to stay in one place for a while, but I’ve found myself moving around every five or ten years,” he said running a hand through his hair, “It may sound a little morbid, but I don’t like sticking around long enough for people to die.”

Chanyeol looked over at him, the man’s eyes reflecting the golden light of his own flames. “I’ve never thought about it like that. Is it hard, ever?”

“I’ve never stuck around long enough to find out,” Kyungsoo said with a rueful laugh, “But there’s a first time for everything.” Oh! The smell of zombie flesh. Kyungsoo could see them ambling closer in the distance. “Let’s worry about that later, though, we’ve got some zombies to kill.”

Chanyeol let out a hoot and ran forward. Over the past week, Kyungsoo had realized that Chanyeol had no lack of power, just lack of control. He was perfectly safe running ahead by himself because he could just burn everything in his path.

Which, of course, he did. It was beautiful, in a sense, the way Chanyeol’s entire body caught on fire, waves of heat billowing from the blaze, turning anything within a five foot radius to a crisp. Kyungsoo had to stay out of the way himself for fear of being burned.

With Chanyeol plunging through the middle of the throng, Kyungsoo ran around the outside, picking off the ones that Chanyeol’s flames didn’t reach. The two of them had grown quite efficient at killing a large group in the shortest amount of time possible.

Kyungsoo sprinted from zombie to zombie, knocking them down and bashing in their heads with the heavy metal pipe he had taken to carrying around with him. It got the job done faster with less mess for him.

There was a sudden hit to the back of his head, and Kyungsoo crouched, clutching his skull. What the...?

He spun around. Fuck, there was another vampire on the scene, this one stocky and snarling.

“They told me if I killed you I could live,” it yelled, unsheathing its claws and running at Kyungsoo. Young one, then: he had only power, and not nearly enough finesse to take Kyungsoo down.

He let the young vampire rush at him, stepping aside at the last moment. Pity he wasn’t able to save him from being turned in the first place, but there was no real hope for him now. As it came running back, Kyungsoo simply held out his claws and snatched him from the ground, using his arm to choke him in the air. The vampire clutched Kyungsoo’s arm, legs swinging, trying to break his grip. One foot came up and kicked him in the face, breaking his nose. Kyungsoo roared in pain, but maintained his grip. He’d have to set that later, but for now he had things to do.

“The mistake you made,” Kyungsoo said carefully, walking away from the remaining zombies, “Was that you didn’t run when you could. That was honestly your best chance at living. I can’t save you now, you’ll only go on to kill more innocent humans,” he explained, before pinning the vampire to a nearby wall.

“Let... me... GO!” the vampire spat, still struggling, and Kyungsoo shrugged.

“Well, you made the decision.” With that, Kyungsoo drove the metal pipe straight through the vampire’s chest. It kicked a few more times before slumping, and he pulled the pipe free, releasing his grip on its neck. He sighed, and nudged the vampire’s corpse a few times to make sure it was dead, then turned back to Chanyeol, who had managed to kill all of the zombies, and was in the process of burning the bodies so people didn’t ask questions when they woke up the next morning.

“Good job,” he called out, and Chanyeol looked up and waved.

“Thanks!” Chanyeol said cheerfully. He was excited to finally be useful to their group, Kyungsoo knew, and he let Chanyeol relish in that feeling.

His phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his inner jacket pocket. _cleanup over on 7th~_ read Baekhyun’s text. They must have encountered another group of zombies themselves.

Kyungsoo beckoned to Chanyeol, who sent one last blast of fire over the area, then bounded over to him. 

“Cleanup for Baekhyun and Minseok?”

Kyungsoo reached a hand up to his face, and gave his nose a wrench to the side, setting it in its correct place. It hurt, but nothing he couldn’t handle. “Yep, let’s get this over with.”

\--

They were in the library again, and today was unusually hot. Sehun had draped himself across the desk an hour ago, and he’s still in the same position.

“Why is it so hot, Kyungsoo?” Jongdae whined. He was sitting there in shorts and a sleeveless shirt, and yet he was still sweating. Unfortunately, the building’s air conditioning has been turned off for the winter, and was solely on heat now. Sehun had opened the windows when he arrived, but it hadn’t really helped.

“Massive scale climate change,” Kyungsoo muttered, working quickly to make up for Sehun’s deficit. The heat didn’t affect him like it did the others. He could tell that it was warm, but he didn’t sweat like they did, and it wasn’t an uncomfortable heat.

“How are you even moving that fast?” Sehun groaned, peeling his head off the desk. There was a pink spot where his cheek had been resting against the smooth surface.

Kyungsoo was wearing his usual dark-colored outfit to block out as much of the direct sunlight as possible. He also had his sunglasses on to prevent himself from getting a headache. “I’m not human, that’s how,” he replied, looking over the mess on the desk. He would clean it up later.

“I can’t even think about doing anything related to the bad guy today, let alone doing any work,” Sehun moaned.

“What do necromancers do, exactly?” Kyungsoo asked, directed at Sehun. He had read some books, but Sehun probably knew a lot more.

“They’re a subcategory of wizard,” Sehun began, shifting in his seat, “Junmyeon is a wizard, but he’s technically still picking a concentration. There are shamans like Yixing, people who specialize in demons, scholars, healers, the list goes on. As of now, Junmyeon is probably going to end up a scholar. But back to necromancers—their specialty is dealing with the dead. They try and communicate with spirits, raise zombies, and use their own special kind of dark magic to fight. This guy will still know a lot of the wizard things that Junmyeon knows, but he probably doesn’t know a lot about theory. On the reverse side, Junmyeon can’t make zombies, but if he worked at it long enough, he could. That would make him a necromancer, though.”

Jongdae spoke up. “What does Yixing do as a shaman?”

“Shamans know a lot about traditional plants and use things found in nature to create their spells, which usually have a more helpful effect. They’re not particularly good at fighting, but if you have a problem, like an incurable disease, Yixing might be able to do something about it,” Sehun said, moving to look out the window. There was a slight breeze blowing in, but nothing particularly comforting for the humans in the room. At least they were on the third floor, and it was an old building, so the ceilings were high.

Jongdae snorted. “Well. Next time I get one of those, I’ll give him a call. Kyungsoo, come here so I can sap off your coldness.”

Kyungsoo looked up. “You realize that won’t be particularly effective in cooling you down? Just go get a cup of water or something.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to move.”

\--

The problem with fighting so many nights in a row was that Kyungsoo was really fucking hungry all of the time. They were having another meeting, at Kyungsoo’s house this time, to discuss fighting strategy. More and more vampires had been showing up, and although they were fairly weak (most older vampires weren’t stupid enough to go and work for some dumb necromancer), Kyungsoo was still having issues.

His stomach growled, and he shifted, wincing. They were sitting in his living room (he didn’t actually have much furniture, only enough chairs for everyone), with Junmyeon talking about possible methods of eliminating zombies faster or finding a way to prevent them. Yixing occasionally chimed in with a bit of useful information, but they still hadn’t come up with anything Kyungsoo hadn’t already tried in the past, and he was distracted.

Jongdae had insisted on moving his chair closer to Kyungsoo’s. He was sitting very close, leaning in to rest his weight on the arm of Kyungsoo’s chair. Kyungsoo inhaled slightly. He could smell Jongdae’s skin, and if he sniffed hard enough, he bet he’d be able to detect his blood pumping through his veins. Oh, but he was so weak, it wouldn’t be hard to just bite down and sate his hunger. It had been so long since he’d had real blood.

Fuck.

Kyungsoo moved further away from Jongdae under the guise of casually shifting his position. He crossed his legs and shoved his hands into his pockets. It was taking quite a bit of Kyungsoo’s willpower to hold himself back. Jongdae couldn’t find out about this.

Across the room, Sehun was looking at him curiously. Had he noticed Kyungsoo’s rampant bloodlust? Probably. Sehun hung around Kyungsoo enough at work to know what he was like when he was hungry. Dammit, the boxed blood just wasn’t cutting it, but he couldn’t go back to biting people! He was doing the only-kill-in-defense thing, and there was no way he could ask any of their group for donations, no fucking way.

His stomach made another noise, and this time Jongdae noticed, looking down at his stomach, then up again to meet his eyes.

“Are you alright?” Jongdae whispered, looking vaguely concerned.

“Fine.” Kyungsoo said, dismissing his question. He could hold himself off until the end of the meeting, and then he’d drink. And then go and kill more zombies. Fuck.

Kyungsoo spent the rest of the meeting statue-still, the only way he knew he could trust himself, and when Junmyeon dismissed them, he got up and strode immediately to his kitchen (politeness be damned), opened his fridge, took out a carton, stabbed the straw in and finally drank. He’d have to be more careful in the future, he had almost snapped there.

Jongdae entered at a more sedate pace, raising an eyebrow when he noticed Kyungsoo drinking from his juice box.

“Were you hungry that whole meeting?” he asked, walking over to the fridge and opening it himself. Kyungsoo could tell Jongdae was a little surprised about the quantity of blood stored inside, compared to the few water bottles and cans of soda for his occasional guests.

“Just a little,” Kyungsoo replied, finishing his drink. He kept it in his hand; maybe Jongdae wouldn’t notice he was already done. He usually took his time eating.

Jongdae cracked open a soda can, and took a sip, dabbing at the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. “Okay, what’s up? You’re not acting like you normally do.”

“I’m... just tired, from all the fighting.”

Sighing, Jongdae walked over to Kyungsoo and wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling them close together. “That’s clearly not why. Kyungsoo, if this is going to work, you’re going to have to trust me.”

Shit. Alright, he’d fess up, but not with the others still in his house. “After everyone else leaves, okay?”

Jongdae gave his waist a squeeze, but conceded. Kyungsoo gave him a small smile, and walked back to the living room, going along as everyone said their goodbyes and left in twos and threes. The rest of them thankfully allowed him a small break from fighting tonight, per his request. Junmyeon could sometimes be compassionate.

After the last of them had drove away, Jongdae ambled back into the living room, plopping down on Kyungsoo’s sofa and patting the seat next to him. Kyungsoo didn’t particularly like that sofa, but it would have to do. He sat next to Jongdae, still not quite touching him.

“Well?” Jongdae lifted an eyebrow.

“In a sense, I am actually tired,” Kyungsoo started, looking down at his hands, “I can’t keep up with the fighting we’ve been doing.”

Jongdae kicked off his shoes, and swung his feet up onto the cushions, resting his back against the arm of the sofa. “But you didn’t have a problem with that in the past, right?”

Kyungsoo nodded, still not meeting Jongdae’s eyes. “But in the past I was drinking fresh blood, not stuff that was two weeks old or older. What I’m drinking right now isn’t doing a good job of sustaining me, even with the volumes that I’m currently consuming.”

Jongdae frowned, sitting up a little straighter. “Why doesn’t it work as well?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but the older the blood is, the poorer it works.”

“Weird,” Jongdae muttered, scooting closer to Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo held still.

“And the problem is, my body wants fresh blood.”

“Well, obviously. You’ve told me why you won’t do that before, on that trip to the pizza place?” Jongdae attempted to snuggle into Kyungsoo, poking him when he refused to move.

“Yes, yes I did. But there’s another problem.”

“And that is...?”

“When you do shit like this,” Kyungsoo used a hand to push Jongdae away, “my body wants your blood. I can smell it, and I want it, but I can’t have it.”

Jongdae froze. “Oh. I didn’t think about it like that.”

Kyungsoo nearly rolled his eyes. “Yeah. So now you see my predicament.”

“Huh.” Jongdae seemed to think for a few seconds, then spoke again. “Why not? You don’t have to drain me dry, just take a little bit, and your thirst would be satisfied.”

“No, I’m not going to do that.”

“Oh, come on, you don’t have to take that much,” Jongdae whined, pawing at Kyungsoo’s arm. Dammit, Jongdae was making this hard for him. Because he really, desperately, wanted to give in.

“I don’t want to see you as food, I want to see you as a person,” he argued, turning to Jongdae, fingers clenched into fists as to not grab onto him. Kyungsoo was afraid that if he took that sip, his views of Jongdae would change, and that it would cause the death of their relationship.

Jongdae slammed a hand down. “If I can dissociate pigs with being pets instead of food, I think you can see me as a person and not just something to eat.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“Seriously? Drinking from me would satisfy your cravings and allow us to be together, as well as allowing you to fight easier. And besides,” Jongdae said, placing a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder, “Like you told me to before, I trust you. I think you can do it.”

Shit.

Kyungsoo rubbed his hands over his face. “I just don’t want to give in. It makes me feel like a monster sometimes,” he mumbled.

Jongdae’s hand moved from his shoulder to cup his cheek, and Kyungsoo opened his eyes and met Jongdae’s.

“You’re not a monster unless you behave like one,” Jongdae said softly, “And if you have my consent, and you’re not hunting me, then that doesn’t make you a monster.”

Well. Maybe it was okay, then. But he wouldn’t drink from Jongdae more than twice a week, and only in little amounts, and he’d make sure Jongdae ate plenty of meat and whatever else was important for humans and their blood.

“Fine. I’ll do it. But are you absolutely sure?” he asked, staring Jongdae straight in the eyes. He had to be absolutely certain that Jongdae was okay with this.

Jongdae nodded. “Please be gentle, though.” He didn’t flinch or break Kyungsoo’s gaze. Kyungsoo could respect that kind of bravery.

“Of course,” said Kyungsoo with an eye roll, “I’m not going to tear your neck open. All that will be left in the morning are two small red dots that look a bit like hickeys.”

“Kinky.” Jongdae lifted his eyebrows.

Kyungsoo flicked him lightly. “Shut up, that’s a perfectly normal thing to do.” Jongdae laughed, falling back against the armrest. Kyungsoo rose and offered a hand to him, pulling him up once he took it.

“Where are we going?” he asked, looking bewildered. “Weren’t you going to bite me?”

“Yes. However, you’ll be a lot more comfortable lying down, so we’re moving to my bed.” Kyungsoo twined their fingers together, and gently tugged Jongdae along with him up the stairs.

“Sure, no, that’s fine, yeah a bed is definitely better,” Jongdae babbled. Kyungsoo stopped and looked at him, concerned.

“If you’re not okay with that, we can just do it sitting,” he proposed, already turning back towards the stairs, but Jongdae stopped him.

“No, I’m okay with the bed. I... just wasn’t expecting it,” he said determinedly, and tightened his grip on Kyungsoo’s hand. “Let’s do this.”

Kyungsoo grinned, and leaned in to kiss Jongdae briefly. It was hard to pull away; he was so hungry. “Let’s indeed.”

He proceeded to nearly drag Jongdae into his bedroom, shutting the door behind him. Jongdae looked around appraisingly.

“What?” Kyungsoo asked.

“No coffins, no black?” Jongdae snickered. “I’m surprised. You do look like the type to sleep in a coffin, you know,” he commented, peering at Kyungsoo’s maps and bookcases lining his walls.

“Yeah, that’s just a myth. Like half the stuff people think about vampires. Did you finish that book I gave you?” Kyungsoo asked, moving a stack of books off the bed to a side table.

“I’m halfway through,” Jongdae admitted, staring at a map of Korea. “Gimme some time, I’m a graphic designer, for fuck’s sake.”

Right. Enough talking, more Kyungsoo filling his stomach. He walked up to Jongdae and slid his hands around his hips, gripping the bottom of the sweatshirt Jongdae was wearing.

“Can I take this off?” he asked, allowing his fingertips to brush against Jongdae’s skin. Kyungsoo could feel the goosebumps forming, and he smirked.

“What for? Are you just trying to get me naked?” Jongdae jokingly accused, his hands naturally moving to Kyungsoo’s waist.

“I’m sure you’d rather not get blood on your shirt, but getting you naked doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Kyungsoo said, brushing a nail against Jongdae’s hipbone. Jongdae shivered.

“Just my shirt for tonight. Remember, we’re trying to keep this simple until we resolve the necromancer issue.”

Kyungsoo let his head fall to Jongdae’s shoulder. “Don’t remind me of that now,” he groaned, moving the sweatshirt slowly upward. “I want to relax. But yeah, just your shirt.” He lifted his head and pulled it up and over Jongdae’s head in one smooth motion.

Jongdae’s chest was pale, and lightly muscled. Clearly it didn’t see daylight very often, not that Kyungsoo was one to talk. He made a noise, then clutched at Kyungsoo’s shirt.

“You too?”

Kyungsoo nodded, and allowed Jongdae to undo the buttons on his own shirt, slipping it off his shoulders when he was finished.

Jongdae tapped Kyungsoo’s not-very-defined abdominal muscle structure, and lifted an eyebrow. “Hey, what’s the point of having a super strong vampire to date if he isn’t super buff-looking?”

Kyungsoo glared at him, then proceeded to duck down to lift Jongdae in a princess-style carry. “I’ll have you know that muscle definition isn’t everything, asshole.”

Jongdae laughed, thumping a fist against Kyungsoo’s chest with every convulsion. “Alright, alright, I get it, let me down.”

Taking the opportunity to place Jongdae on his bed, Kyungsoo slipped off his own shoes and climbed on top of him, careful not to put himself in a position that would instigate anything.

“I’m hungry; enough joking,” he stated, eyeing Jongdae’s neck. Jongdae stopped laughing, and looked up at him, eyes wide.

“That’s fine with me,” he said, clutching at his own arms. “Go ahead whenever you’re ready. And I promise, I’m sure,” he added, seeing the questioning look in Kyungsoo’s eye.

Kyungsoo shrugged. “Okay, whatever you say.”

He bent down, kissed Jongdae once, and then trailed his nose down his neck, relishing in the feeling. Oh, it had been far too long. He licked a swatch of skin at the base, a good spot where Jongdae wouldn’t bleed too fast. “This may hurt a bit, but it’ll be over quickly,” he warned, then exposed his fangs and bit into Jongdae’s flesh, careful to be precise.

The sweet, warm flavor of Jongdae’s blood flowed into his mouth, Jongdae flinching slightly under him, then relaxing. Kyungsoo made no move to suck, and simply let Jongdae’s heart do the work for him. It was just exquisite, that taste; the perfect combination of metallic tang, sweetness, and just the right amount of bitter. Although, it didn’t taste how Kyungsoo was expecting it to. It was... different, but not bad different.

Under him, Jongdae let out a soft sigh, arching his back slightly. “It hurts, but it doesn’t feel bad,” he whispered, arms coming up to wrap around Kyungsoo’s back.

Kyungsoo hummed softly, and slowly withdrew his fangs, lapping up the excess blood spilling out. Vampire saliva allowed for bites to heal faster, something Kyungsoo believed was for vampires that kept humans as their pets (a common occurrence back in the 1700’s). Not that Kyungsoo did that, but it was a bit convenient.

He sat up, watching as Jongdae’s skin slowly began knitting itself back together. Jongdae blinked up at him. “It itches.”

“It’ll do that, it’s normal,” he said reassuringly. “Do you feel okay? Lightheaded, or anything?”

Jongdae sat up slowly, leaning on his palms. “No, I’m fine. Should probably drink some water, but you didn’t take that much. How do you feel?”

At that, Kyungsoo grinned. “Absolutely fantastic. Not hungry whatsoever. Could probably run all the way to Niagara Falls without stopping.” Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but he was trying to make a point.

Jongdae spread his hands. “So that was totally worth it, admit it.”

“Yes, you’re right. And I don’t feel like I need to bite you again, even though I can still smell your blood,” he admitted, shifting to sit next to Jongdae on the bed. Jongdae let out a whoop, prompting Kyungsoo to lay back and get comfortable. He was thrumming with energy, but he didn’t feel like doing anything but laying there next to Jongdae.

They laid there in silence for a few moments, before Jongdae asked, “So, can I stay the night? I don’t really feel like going back home right now.”

Kyungsoo sat up again and looked at him. Jongdae’s eyelids were drooping and he was so relaxed that he looked like a puddle of goo, lying there. He rolled his eyes, and got up, moving to his closet. “Sure. You look like you’re going to pass out any second, anyway. But please get up and drink some water first, maybe change into something more comfortable to sleep on? I’d offer you a toothbrush but I don’t exactly have any.” Kyungsoo needed to get one if Jongdae was going to be staying over more frequently from now on. As well as buy some food. Maybe learn how to cook? That would be a useful skill, right? He debated making the investment of his time as he sorted through his collection of sweatpants.

Jongdae finally rose and shuffled to Kyungsoo’s bathroom, yawning. “A pair of shorts would do, if you have them.” Kyungsoo could hear the sink turning on, and he assumed Jongdae was getting a drink. Yeah, he probably had shorts somewhere here, not that he wore them very often, because the goal was to protect as much of his body from the sun as he could, not keep it cool. He poked through a basket of clothing in the corner, finally finding a pair of shorts that he was pretty sure weren’t actually his, judging by the bright orange color. Baekhyun, maybe?

Jongdae appeared to tug the shorts from his hands, snorting at the color.

Kyungsoo grunted. “They’re not mine, I never bought those, but I think they’re all I have.”

“It’s fine; I just wouldn’t expect you to own anything this brightly colored,” Jongdae giggled, walking to the other side of the room to strip out of his jeans and put the shorts on. He then proceeded to flop onto Kyungsoo’s bed, turning to his side and shutting his eyes. “Now come on, I’m tired.”

“You realize this is my version of daytime, right?”

Jongdae’s eyes popped open. “Right, I forgot. Um...”

“How about I stay until you fall asleep, then get up and do the things I need to do?” Kyungsoo proposed, finding a t-shirt made of a soft material and slipping it on, then swapping his own pants for sweatpants. Clothing had come so far since he was born. Zippers were awfully convenient.

“That’s fine, just get over here,” Jongdae murmured, reaching out a hand before letting it drop. Kyungsoo padded over to the other side of the bed and crawled in next to him, draping an arm over Jongdae’s waist. “Good.”

Kyungsoo waited until Jongdae’s breathing slowed, then carefully and quietly rose again, moving out of the room and downstairs. He paused at the entrance to his kitchen, looking at the slight disorder.

What was he getting himself into, by trying to date a human?

Although he couldn’t exactly use it very often, Kyungsoo had a backyard, and a small garden there. There were a couple plants he knew of that retained their blooms into the night, and he cultivated them in the dark occasionally when he was bored. But now it was fall, and everything was beginning to lose its summer brilliance.

Kyungsoo walked from the kitchen to his back door, letting himself out into the yard. He cut the lawn with an old push mower, since he couldn’t do it like his other neighbors when they were asleep. Walking barefoot through the grass, he took seat under the big tree at the edge of the property and leaned his head against its trunk.

The human world and his had too many differences to be compatible, really. Jongdae was young and had the rest of his life to live. He couldn’t spend his time creeping around at night with Kyungsoo when there were so many sunrises to see.

The moon shown down on Kyungsoo’s pale skin. That was light from the heavens that his skin could tolerate, and he traced a finger down his now-visible veins. Could he really make Jongdae live his kind of life? There wasn’t much Kyungsoo could do to synchronize their schedules... and Kyungsoo didn’t have to sleep much, but he did require a few hours every day if he wanted to retain his sanity. Sleep gave his brain time to process all of the memory it retained.

And would he be able to keep his relationship with Jongdae separate from his need for blood? Now that Jongdae had allowed him, clearly there would be a repeat performance. There was no denying that. But how was he supposed to stop himself if Jongdae was literally giving him the substance they both needed to survive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to put the next ch. up tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

Kyungsoo was woken up from his brief nap before work by his phone buzzing. He carefully unplugged it from its charger and hit the green button to answer the call.

“Kyungsoo, oh my god, thank you for picking up!” came Junmyeon’s frantic voice. “I went outside because I needed to buy milk, and I found a body on my doorstep.”

Kyungsoo blinked. “Well, that’s problematic. Want to give me some specifics?”

“Yes, okay, the body looks like it has been drained by a vampire by the bite marks on its throat. Quite brutally, as well. Human, nobody I know. I should probably call the police, but I wanted to tell you about the note first,” Junmyeon explained.

“The note?”

There was some rustling, then Junmyeon spoke again. “Yeah, typed sheet of paper laying on top of the body. It reads, ‘This is your warning. Get out of town, or your friends are next.’ What do you think it means?”

Kyungsoo grunted. “Sounds like our necromancer has it out for us. I assume that’s because we’re killing his zombies.”

“It seems so, yes, but also because I’m the one who’s supposed to be protecting this area, and the necromancer probably wants to kick me out.”

“That too,” Kyungsoo mused, laying back on his pillows, “I suppose you should just be careful. Keep your phone on you at all times, and have one of us with you if you go out at night.”

Junmyeon sighed. “Alright. This just complicates things.”

“I think that was the general intent, yes.”

“Ha. Well, I’m going to go call the police before my neighbors wake up and see me crouched over a dead body, have a good day,” Junmyeon muttered.

Kyungsoo snorted. “I’ll try.”

\--

It was a good thing that Kyungsoo had taken some of Jongdae’s blood, because the next night he went out patrolling, he caught a whiff of a large quantity of zombie flesh.

Kyungsoo had been walking alone along the train tracks, minding his own business, when the scent caught his attention. Damn, that was strong. With a quick look in either direction, he followed his nose and hopped over the tracks, walking alongside the massive wall and up to the fairly narrow alley between this building and the next. He paused before walking through the gap, poking his head around the corner. What was this place? It looked like an old empty warehouse... ohh, that wasn’t good. Where else would something nasty be hiding, honestly?

He stopped to take stock of the situation. It was fairly late at night, and a drop in attacks lately had caused Junmyeon to keep patrols down to one or two people, alternating nights. Maybe the necromancer had finally realized that technique wasn’t working, although it was a fat chance.

So he was alone, and everyone else was probably asleep. If he needed backup, he doubted he could get it at the moment. You know, this really wasn’t looking to be a good situation. But he couldn’t just ignore the zombies; they might go out and infect the humans living in the town.

Shit.

Okay, fine. Kyungsoo would go and check it out. But at the first major sign of danger, he would get the fuck out of there.

He skirted around the corner, keeping close to the warehouse’s outside wall. The gravel crunched under his feet, and he winced. From what he could tell, the door was about 15 meters away from his current position, and the hinges were slightly rusted. Hopefully it wouldn’t make too much noise when he opened it, unless... There! An open window halfway up the wall, about five meters high. Now if only he could find some way to get up there.

Kyungsoo looked around. What did he have to use? There was no way he could climb up that wall like Spiderman or some shit, no fucking way. If he could just get up a bit further, though, he could probably jump up and grab onto the ledge.

Another quick glance around the area got him a few old crates stacked up against a wall. Well. He could move those, but then people would definitely be able to tell that someone had infiltrated the warehouse if they saw them.

Okay, problem solving, problem solving, how was he going to do this? What if... No, that couldn’t work, could it? What if Kyungsoo took the crates and stacked them a little better, and just scooted them over a little, and then climbed on top of them? He could leap from the top of the crate stack, going from one wall to the window. It would require a little physical ability, but the alley was fairly narrow. He could probably make it? If not, he’d just hit the wall and fall about four meters. He might be a little sore the next day, but that wouldn’t be too much of an issue... Yes. Okay, he was going to try it.

Kyungsoo darted over to the crates, and lifted one up, moving it a meter or so to the right, directly across from the window. He repeated the gesture until he had the four crates stacked up, giving him a three-meter advantage on the window. Okay. This would totally work.

Light-footed, Kyungsoo climbed up his tower of crates, reaching the top and crouching. He’d have to jump about a meter up and three meters across to successfully make it. Right.

Gathering his strength, Kyungsoo sprang from his crouched position across the gap, sailing through the air. His fingers made contact with the rusted metal window frame, and he stuck a foot out so the rest of his body didn’t smack into the wall. Success.

Kyungsoo pulled himself up using the traction of his shoe against the brick and his arm strength, and peeked through the window. It was dark inside, and there was a small catwalk for him to land on. Perfect. He pulled himself through and landed lightly on the catwalk, making minimal noise.

Dusting off his hands, he looked around. He was in some sort of front room, perhaps once used for loading, and a crane loomed over the floor, a large chunk of... some kind of meat (hopefully not human?) on its hook. Below it was a mosh pit of zombies, all trying to get to the chunk of meat. Ah, so that’s what he had smelled. And this was definitely the necromancer’s base, if he was keeping all of these zombies here.

Should Kyungsoo try to kill them? He didn’t think he could get them all before someone noticed, but he could probably take down a good number. He didn’t have a weapon with him, though... that would make it a little harder.

Gripping the rail of the catwalk with both hands, Kyungsoo tapped his foot, thinking. Okay, if he was here he might as well—

“Hey!” Shit. Kyungsoo looked up to see another vampire (and this one looked strong) running at him at full speed. Turning, Kyungsoo sprinted along the catwalk, gripping one of the support beams and swinging himself up. He ran across the beam, using it like a wide tightrope, and took a hard left onto another catwalk running close to the ceiling. 

Unfortunately, another vampire was there waiting, and it leaped at him, claws out and hissing. Kyungsoo went down, rolling to get the other vampire off him, only to meet the first vampire, who punched him in the gut, his other hand going for Kyungsoo’s throat. He managed to block the throat shot but took the stomach shot hard, doubling over.

The second vampire took the opportunity to elbow him in the back of the neck, and he stumbled, falling face first onto the hard metal catwalk. One of them tried to plant a boot on his back, but he flipped himself over before they could do that, and it ended up on his chest instead.

“Looks like we’ve got you now,” the first vampire smirked, his fangs showing. Kyungsoo was not dying today, though, and he hadn’t wanted to use the obvious escape route, but things were going that way.

Kyungsoo returned the grin. “Mm, I don’t think so.” Gripping the second vampire’s ankle, he ripped it away, and rolled off the catwalk into the pit of zombies.

Pro: the zombies cushioned his fall. Con: he was going to smell like zombie for another month, not to mention the fact that he would have to fight his way out.

Springing up, Kyungsoo shot towards the door, clawing zombies out of his way left and right. The other two vampires were running along the catwalk again, clearly hesitant to ruin their supply of zombies or risk the fall. He didn’t have much time to get out.

Finally breaking free of the throng, Kyungsoo was about to reach the door to the outside when a third vampire popped up, arms spread.

That wouldn’t do. Kyungsoo hoped that door wasn’t too strong.

Covering his face with his arms, Kyungsoo leapt at the vampire feet first, smashing him through the thankfully wooden door. He used the vampire’s body as a springboard and dashed away into the night, running as fast as his own body would let him. The quicker he got away the better. Too bad there was no running water around to disguise the scent of zombie clinging to his skin.

He could hear the other vampires cursing and running after him, and he picked up his pace, skipping over the tracks and through the rows of houses on the other side. He jumped a few fences, and continued running through the park. His car was about a quarter of a mile away; if he could get there he was safe.

Somewhere behind him he could hear a dog barking. Lights flicked on, and someone swore. Good.

Putting on a last burst of speed, Kyungsoo turned the corner to the parking lot where his car was sitting. He quickly unlocked the door and got in, speeding away.

When he was about a mile away from the parking lot, he relaxed. There was no way they’d get him now, although they would definitely be able to recognize his face in the future.

On the bright side, he had news for Junmyeon. They now knew the location of the necromancer’s base, which would definitely help them out in the month to come.

\--

Kyungsoo waited until the next day to call Junmyeon and tell him because he was a good friend that didn’t call his day-oriented friends at night.

Jongdae and Sehun had walked in together, talking about some book (Kyungsoo sometimes wished he could be involved in the reading aspect of this fight), and Kyungsoo had immediately waved them over.

“What is it, hyung?” Sehun asked, putting his belongings down on the desk and coming to stand next to Kyungsoo. Jongdae followed, but slipped an arm around Kyungsoo’s waist instead.

“You know how I went patrolling last night?” They both nodded. “Well, I found the necromancer’s hideout,” Kyungsoo said, picking up his phone. “I’m going to call Junmyeon and tell him right now.”

Sehun gaped at him. “What? How?”

“It would be easier to explain it to all of you at once.” Kyungsoo dialed Junmyeon, only having to wait through two rings before he picked up.

“Morning, Kyungsoo, how can I help you?” He put the phone on speaker and set it down on the desk.

“I’m here with Sehun and Jongdae in the library, and I wanted to let you know that I found the necromancer’s hideout last night.” Take that for progress.

“... How on earth did you manage to do that?” Junmyeon asked, sounding bewildered. Kyungsoo grinned.

“I was walking along the train tracks, and I smelled zombie. So obviously I followed my nose, and it brought me to that old abandoned warehouse.”

“Cliché,” Jongdae snorted.

“My thoughts exactly,” Kyungsoo said dryly. “Anyway, I snuck in, and I found a massive number of zombies, along with at least three more vampires. They found me pretty quick, though, and I had to fight my way out. They definitely know my face now.” Sehun frowned, but then shrugged. Kyungsoo felt the same; it didn’t really matter since they would probably end up fighting again in the long run.

Junmyeon was silent for a bit. “This is good. Nice work, Kyungsoo. Are you okay, though? Not injured?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“Great. Don’t do something like that alone again, please.” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and leaned his weight against the desktop. “But now we just need this guy’s identity, and how to defeat him, and we have this in the bag.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s going to be that simple, but sure. We’ll go with that.”

Junmyeon laughed. “It’s never that easy, right? We’ll make it work. Just keep it up, and we can do this.”

“Damn right, we can,” Jongdae said a little too loudly. Both Kyungsoo and Sehun glared at him, and he grinned sheepishly.

“Alright, well, see you guys soon,” Junmyeon said, waiting for the three of them to say their goodbyes before hanging up.

Jongdae immediately hounded him. “Wait, you went in there completely alone? What the hell were you thinking?”

“Seriously, hyung, that was fucking stupid. You could have died and we would have had no idea what happened to you,” Sehun agreed, crossing his arms.

Kyungsoo waved it off. “Don’t worry. I’ve survived a lot more dangerous situations over the years, I can survive this no problem.” He definitely hadn’t been scared shitless when the first vampire started running towards him, no way, not Kyungsoo.

Jongdae whined and tugged on his arm. “Please don’t do that again, at least not without letting us know where you are? We all care about you, Kyungsoo, and we want to make sure you’re okay.”

Kyungsoo supposed he could have at least left a text message. “Fine, I’ll let you know next time I decide to happen upon a necromancer’s lair and decide to go in by myself,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Really, I was never in any real danger.” He had been, but they didn’t have to know that.

Sehun snorted and waltzed off to start working, and Kyungsoo made a face at his back before turning to Jongdae. “Are you free tonight?” he asked, fiddling with a button on his shirt collar. “I was going to repaint my living room, and I need help picking out the paint colors.”

Jongdae’s face lit up. “Ooh, I get to pick? Fantastic, I’m totally free as long as I get some work done today.” Good.

“Speaking of work,” Kyungsoo said, “I should probably get started.”

“Good point.” Jongdae gave Kyungsoo’s waist a squeeze, and moved to his table, sitting down and opening his laptop. Kyungsoo had watched Jongdae working, once, and was baffled by all of the stuff he knew how to do to an image. It seemed fun to learn, although Kyungsoo was now considering something science-y for his next career.

He turned to the massive card catalog, and sighed. Back to work.

\--

Kyungsoo had given Jongdae his car keys and his wallet, and told him to go buy the paint while he was still at work, seeing as it wasn’t going to be open when he finished. By doing this, he realized he was placing a significant amount of trust in Jongdae; that he wouldn’t buy hot pink paint as a joke. Again, trust, it would be fine.

Jongdae had returned his keys, and when Kyungsoo asked him what color the paint was, he just shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips. Which did not bode well for Kyungsoo’s living room.

So when Kyungsoo finally got a look at the paint cans when he opened the trunk of his car at home, he was not surprised to find cans blueish grayish lavender paint, along with white for the ceiling, sitting there innocently.

“I also bought tarps and brushes,” Jongdae said proudly, standing next to Kyungsoo in his driveway, hands on his hips.

Kyungsoo rubbed his eyes. “Lavender? Seriously?”

Lifting an eyebrow, Jongdae said, “White walls and a bright blue ceiling? Seriously? Honestly, anything is better than that. And I’ll have you know lavender looks fantastic, you’ll see.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” Kyungsoo muttered with a glare, then picked up all but two of the paint cans and proceeded to walk over to his door, unlocking it with his free hand and walking inside. Jongdae’s laughter followed him, and he moved to the living room to continue glaring at Jongdae through the window. Unfortunately, this only made Jongdae laugh harder.

Together the pair of them moved all the furniture to the hallway, and spread the tarps across the ground. Kyungsoo gave Jongdae some older clothes to use to paint, and together they dipped their rollers into the white.

“The ceiling is definitely going to need more than one coat, maybe four or five just to cover up all of that bright blue,” Jongdae speculated, beginning to paint the ceiling.

“Look, I didn’t do it on purpose,” Kyungsoo muttered, spreading the paint around. “I was just really mad, and it happened.”

Jongdae shrugged. He and Kyungsoo were about the same size, but Jongdae filled out his older clothes in a way that made Kyungsoo keep an eye on the way he stretched his arms over his head. “I don’t blame you. You could have picked a less intense color, though.”

“Well, I was trying to match the color of the sky, not that I know that very well.”

Jongdae took a break to roll out his shoulders and put more paint on the roller. “I mean, I guess it’s pretty accurate,” he said, looking up at the bright blue still visible. 

“I asked a dude, that’s what he gave me. Looked at me a little funny, but he gave it to me anyway.” Kyungsoo climbed the ladder and began to paint along the taped-off edges. This might actually turn into a multiple-day project, especially if they were going to do it right. According to the book Kyungsoo had found during some of his down time, absolutely everything was supposed to be taped off, unlike the first time he had painted the ceiling. That would probably explain the blue paint smears on the walls.

They worked diligently for another two hours, talking about music they both liked. This lead to Kyungsoo pulling out a radio, and instead of talking they sang badly as they moved on to covering the white walls with the lavender Jongdae had picked out.

An ad came on, and Kyungsoo turned down the radio and stepped back to admire their work.

“Okay, you were right, it doesn’t look half bad,” he admitted, inhaling to take in the smell of paint.

Jongdae whooped. “I told you! Plus, it’s nice to have a spot of color in a room or two. It really livens up the place.”

Kyungsoo chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I do need that.” You know, being technically undead and all.

“You really do. I get a little bored with only white walls, and I’m trying to stay awake here,” he yawned. Right, it was late for Jongdae.

Stretching his arms over his head, Jongdae’s shirt rode up a sliver, exposing the skin leading down. Kyungsoo’s eyes immediately darted to watch, and when he looked up, he saw Jongdae watching him back with an odd look on his face.

“You want something?” Jongdae asked hoarsely, and Kyungsoo sunk his fangs into his own lower lip. Oh, he wanted alright.

Kyungsoo set down his paintbrush carefully, not wanting to get paint on his floors, and paced across the room towards Jongdae, who was standing very still. He gently pushed at Jongdae’s shoulders, walking him back up against the one wall they hadn’t gotten to yet. Jongdae’s breathing rate increased, and Kyungsoo could hear his heart thudding in his chest.

Jongdae’s back hit the wall, and Kyungsoo closed in on him, pressing his own chest into Jongdae’s, arms braced around his head. Jongdae’s hands scrabbled for Kyungsoo’s hips. They stilled for a moment, staring at each other, and then Jongdae’s eyes flicked down to Kyungsoo’s lips, and back up again.

Kyungsoo took that as an incentive to crush his mouth into Jongdae’s. Jongdae let out a small whimper before kissing back with fervor, hands kneading Kyungsoo’s back. This only spurred Kyungsoo on further, and he pressed the length of his body against Jongdae’s until there was no space left between them.

Jongdae shuddered, and arched into him, causing Kyungsoo to wrap one arm around his waist. Wait, was that...?

Oh. Ohhh. Jongdae was aroused. Kyungsoo might have done this countless times, but the knowledge of someone’s arousal never failed to please him.

Disengaging himself from Jongdae’s mouth, Kyungsoo rested his forehead on Jongdae’s and tentatively pushed a knee between his thighs. Jongdae responded with a hitch of breath, and he kissed Kyungsoo again, hard. Fuck, Jongdae’s lips were going to look amazing all red and swollen.

Kyungsoo proceeded to roll his hips into Jongdae’s, and the other man let out a shuddering sigh. He could feel Jongdae’s legs giving out slightly, and tightened his grip on his waist to keep him pressed firmly against wall.

“Fuck, Kyungsoo,” Jongdae breathed against his lips, “You’re so fucking strong, and it’s so fucking good. Please don’t stop.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Kyungsoo said roughly. He was aroused himself, dick half hard in the ratty sweatpants that were now covered in paint. The plan was to see this to fruition.

Jongdae smirked at this, and rolled his own hips into Kyungsoo’s. The friction did wonders to ease his growing need, and he could feel Jongdae’s dick, now fully hard against his own. Shit.

He began to rut into Jongdae, who moaned quietly and did the same, his fingers splayed against Kyungsoo’s back. After a few minutes of this, Jongdae stilled, causing Kyungsoo to pull back, giving Jongdae a questioning look.

“I need to touch you,” he said, snaking a hand down to the drawstring of Kyungsoo’s pants squeezing him slightly through the soft material, “Please tell me I can touch you.”

Kyungsoo bit into his own lip again, nodded, manipulated Jongdae so the majority of his weight was resting on Kyungsoo and the wall, and moved his hands to Jongdae’s own hips, asking, “Does that mean I can touch you?”

“Fuck, of course. Please touch me, Kyungsoo.” Quickly flicking open the button of Jongdae’s holey jeans, Kyungsoo undid his zipper and slid a hand inside, dragging his nails against the sensitive skin there, and causing Jongdae to shiver. He shimmied Jongdae’s jeans and underwear down slightly for better access, and gripped his dick, wrapping his fingers around slowly. Jongdae convulsed in his arms, head thudding against the wall, as he began stroking him.

“Dammit, Kyungsoo, stop distracting me,” he chuckled breathlessly, and yanked the drawstring of Kyungsoo’s sweatpants open, causing them to slip down his hips slightly. Jongdae’s eyes widened, and Kyungsoo let out a breathless laugh.

“Hey, you’re not wearing underwear!”

“Didn’t feel like it,” Kyungsoo replied, changing his grip and causing Jongdae to lose focus again. He quickly regained control, however, and plunged his hand into Kyungsoo’s pants, taking hold and stroking him slowly, but picking up speed.

Kyungsoo wasn’t particularly vocal during sex, but he made up for it in other ways. He planted an absolutely filthy kiss on Jongdae’s mouth, keeping him engaged while they frantically jerked each other off amid Jongdae’s pants.

Jongdae came first, whining and shuddering in Kyungsoo’s grip, and he doubled his efforts, causing Kyungsoo to come with a choked noise. They stood there in silence for few moments, calming down and in Jongdae’s case, recovering his breath and cooling down. Kyungsoo had his head on Jongdae’s shoulder, inhaling the scent of Jongdae’s sweat.

When Jongdae spoke, Kyungsoo could feel his body vibrating slightly. “That was... yeah.”

Kyungsoo laughed, starting with a small giggle and increasing in volume. “Yeah, it was. I agree.”

“Why haven’t we done that yet?”

Kyungsoo blew out a breath, trying to calm his laughter. “Something stupid about waiting until the necromancer was defeated. I take it back; clearly when we said that we didn’t have our priorities straight.”

Jongdae pulled his hand out gingerly, careful not to let the mess get on anything. “That was ridiculous. Why did we say that?”

Kyungsoo lifted his head and used his clean hand to tug Jongdae’s pants up a bit, and straightened. Well.

“I’m not sure. On the bright side, the ceiling looks like it’s ready for a second coat,” Kyungsoo commented, glancing around.

Jongdae snickered, and began to walk towards the bathroom, Kyungsoo following. “You would think about the paint directly after sex,” he commented, rinsing off his hands before lathering them with soap, and washing again.

“Hey, we’re here for a reason; leave me alone.” Kyungsoo washed his own hands and dried them, then walked back to the living room and picked up his roller. Jongdae had moved to the kitchen, assumedly for a glass of water.

Jongdae walked back into the living room with his pants properly fixed, drinking from a glass. He paused to take a hold of Kyungsoo’s hand and gave him a short but sweet kiss. “I’d rather not leave you alone.”

Kyungsoo smiled at him. “Me too, thanks. Now let’s finish painting so we can go to bed. You do want to stay here, right?” he asked, thumbing the bristles on the paintbrush.

Jongdae perked up. “Of course.” He set the glass of water down, and picked up a roller. “Let’s do this.”

\--

Unknown to Jongdae and Kyungsoo, at the exact same time, Chanyeol was following Jongin. Not in a creepy way, okay, it was just that Jongin wasn’t very good at fighting, and he could be a little absentminded sometimes, so Chanyeol thought it was good to protect him. Of course, Jongin insisted that he was fine, and Chanyeol didn’t need to waste his time protecting him, but Chanyeol wasn’t convinced by that, so he was following Jongin.

He peeked out from behind his tree. Damn, Jongin had his headphones in. See? How was he supposed to protect himself if Chanyeol wasn’t there? Chanyeol felt justified in his actions.

Jongin passed in front of the Psychology building, and ambled across the street, making little gestures that Chanyeol knew were part of the latest dance he was learning. It was about midnight, and Jongin had the habit of staying in the practice rooms really late. So Chanyeol decided that he would work on his homework while Jongin practiced, then when he came out, he would follow him home. Luckily Chanyeol’s apartment wasn’t too far from Jongin’s, just a couple blocks, and he was actually ahead in all of his classes due to all the time he was spending studying. Chanyeol could see no problem here.

Chanyeol sneakily followed Jongin across the street, ducking behind a few signs and trees. He was totally getting better at hiding. Ooh, he’d have to ask Kyungsoo for a few tips. Kyungsoo was probably really good at hiding and doing all sorts of spy stuff, since he snuck into that building. Oh, wait, he got caught... Well, he was probably still better at hiding than Chanyeol.

A rustling in the bushes caught Chanyeol’s attention. Jongin was almost at the school gates. He hoped no one was lying in wait. That would be bad, like really bad. Wait, what was that in the bushes?

Suddenly, a large dark shape jumped out of the bushes and sprinted towards Jongin. Shit! Chanyeol broke his cover and ran, lighting up his flames as more of the dark shapes came running towards Jongin, who had looked behind him on chance and seen both the shapes and Chanyeol.

What were those? They kind of looked like dogs, maybe a little like Baekhyun and Minseok when they transformed... Oh, crap! Chanyeol bet they were werewolves from a rival pack or something, and they were probably together with the necromancer guy that was attacking them!

One of the wolves was getting really close to Jongin, so Chanyeol quickly created a fireball and threw it at the wolf, who had to stop, drop, and roll around to put the fire out. Chanyeol smiled, and began throwing fire at all the other wolves, who fell back. 

He sprinted over to Jongin, who was standing still in shock, and drew a ring of fire around the both of them. There. He’d like to see any dumb wolf get through that. Now he just had to scare them away so they could get back home.

“Chanyeol!” Jongin gasped, gripping onto his back. “What are those things?”

“Werewolves, I think,” he replied distractedly. How could he scare them away? Maybe if he went into Super Saiyan mode they would get the reference and back off. “Jongin, I’m going to try and scare them away, can you back up a little bit so I don’t accidentally burn you?”

“Yeah, s-sure,” Jongin replied, and moved to the edge of the ring.

Chanyeol nodded at him, then briefly shut his eyes and searched for that place deep inside him, finding that fire that was always burning, and giving it fuel. It rose up, up and up and up, crackling and burning brighter by the second. He opened his eyes, and his whole body burst into flames. The flame was really its own being, but when he used it, it shared its power with him, allowing them to become one. It was so much power that sometimes it was hard to control, but Chanyeol was working on that. The fire didn’t always understand his physical limitations and they had to practice a lot to make sure he could use it safely.

“Listen, wolves!” he roared, the flames enhancing his voice, “This man belongs to me; if you touch him, I will burn you to a crisp!” Chanyeol probably couldn’t do that before they killed him, but he could definitely protect himself and Jongin if not fight back.

The wolves didn’t seem to get the message entirely, but they did look a little more wary of him than before. Chanyeol could just throw fireballs until they got it, right?

He collected fire in his palms, and started throwing with a fair amount of accuracy. Because of all the practice he had been doing, he could control where the flames went up to a certain distance, which was actually really useful in this situation.

After a few wolves had caught fire, the pack seemed to realize that Chanyeol was serious, and with a few barks and growls, they ran away, disappearing into the night.

Chanyeol thanked his fire, and allowed it to die down. He was hungry now, maybe he and Jongin could get pizza and bond over the experience.

Oh, had he mentioned? Chanyeol really liked Jongin. Like, really liked Jongin. He didn’t think that Jongin knew that, though, because Jongin was a little oblivious. But Chanyeol liked that about him.

He kept the circle burning just in case, and turned to Jongin. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking him over.

Jongin shook his head. “I’m fine. But how did you know I was going to be attacked?”

Ooh. Awkward. Chanyeol was going to have to fess up now. “Um, I was following you?” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. Jongin narrowed his eyes.

“Didn’t I tell you not to do that?”

“Yeah, well, it’s a good thing I did, right? I didn’t want to just let you walk alone because that’s dangerous,” he whined, tugging at Jongin’s arm.

Jongin sighed softly. “You have a point. I wasn’t expecting to get attacked, though... I guess we’ll have to tell Junmyeon about this.”

Chanyeol nodded furiously. “Yep. We need to keep ourselves safe, and the best way to do that is for us to stick together. I really don’t mind waiting for you, Jongin. I do my homework while I wait so it’s fine.”

“Alright, we can walk home together. But let me know if you have something, so I can stop practicing a little earlier on those days, okay?”

Chanyeol nodded again. “Yes, I’ll do that. Now, should we go to my apartment and order pizza? Maybe watch a movie or something?”

Jongin laughed suddenly. “Chanyeol, are you inviting me to Netflix and chill?”

Sputtering, Chanyeol shook his head this time. “No! I just want to eat pizza with you!”

Jongin’s giggles subsided, and he took Chanyeol’s hand in his own. Chanyeol’s cheeks heated up, and he hoped the dim light from his flames disguised the color.

“Chanyeol, you know that I know that you like me, right?”

Chanyeol’s eyes bulged. “What! No! How did you find that out! You weren’t supposed to find out!” His cheeks burst into literal flames.

Giving him a small smile, Jongin continued. “It was Sehun.” Ooh, Chanyeol was going to put him on a spit and roast him over his fire. “But, you know I like you too, right?”

Oh. Chanyeol didn’t know that.

“Yeah, Sehun said he was tired of us dancing around each other, and he said I should tell you. I wasn’t sure, but after knowing that you’ve been doing all this just to keep me safe? I guess we’re both pretty oblivious, huh?” Chanyeol nodded, still unable to form words. “So, how about we call pizza a date?”

Chanyeol blinked. “I... would like that a lot, actually,” he said, finally getting control of his emotions. These past twenty minutes had been a hell of a roller coaster.

Jongin smiled. Chanyeol could feel his heart lighting on fire. “Then it’s a date.”

\--

They were at Sehun’s house a few days later, having another meeting, this time about the rival werewolf pack. Kyungsoo eyed Chanyeol and Jongin. Had those two finally gotten together? About time. The pair were sitting quite close together, hands intertwined. He was almost jealous about how cute they looked, but he had Jongdae, so it was fine.

He focused his attention on Junmyeon. “A few nights ago, Jongin and Chanyeol were attacked by what was most likely a rival werewolf pack,” Junmyeon began, looking even more tired than usual. “Baekhyun and Minseok have informed me that it’s probably true, meaning we have a new enemy on our hands.”

Minseok nodded, and stood up. “The issue is that there are two of us wolves on our side, and a whole lot on the other side. If we were to attack their base right now, we’d surely lose. So we need to get more wolves.”

Baekhyun straightened. “We know some guys. They live a distance away, but they shouldn’t be too busy, and we can call them and ask them to help us. The additional five would certainly help our numbers. The only problem is that it’s going to take them a bit to get here, so we’re going to need to hold off the rival wolves until they do.”

“Werewolves are a bit difficult for me, just because of the sheer power. I have more fighting skill when against humanoid creatures, but you wolves have different techniques and strength in different places,” Kyungsoo mused, tracing patterns on Sehun’s big table with his finger.

Baekhyun grinned at him slyly. “Want to practice sometime? I bet I could teach you a few tricks.”

“...You know, I really don’t like the look on your face right now, Baekhyun.”

“I’ll have you know my face is beautiful.”

“If that’s what you think, sure, but I was talking about how that face implies that you’re going to trick me and make me do something embarrassing,” Kyungsoo reasoned, quirking an eyebrow. Baekhyun just shrugged, the now evil grin remaining on his face.

Junmyeon cleared his throat. “Yes, I would appreciate if you guys could call your friends. And Kyungsoo, Baekhyun may be up to something, but some practice fighting wolves might really come in handy.”

“Oh, I’ll do it, but I’m going to have to keep an eye on Baekhyun,” he glowered.

Minseok already had his phone out. “I just texted one of them, hopefully he’ll call me back soon.”

“Fantastic,” Junmyeon said, then thumped the book lying in front of him. “Now. I’m really pissed that Jongin got attacked. This is ridiculous. We shouldn’t have to deal with this bullshit, so tonight we go hard.”

Yixing nodded. “We’ve got a lot of information on necromancers and their powers, but nothing on this particular necromancer,” he said, indicating a notebook half filled with scribbly pen writing. “What we need to figure out tonight is who this guy is based on the patterns we’ve seen.”

There was a large piece of paper tacked up to the wall, and Yixing stood, going over to stand by it. “We’re looking for a guy who has either recently moved to the United States, or has been inactive for a while. He uses mainly zombies, but can persuade vampires and werewolves to work for him. He’s not too powerful, because he hasn’t managed to conjure any demons, but he’s able to raise a considerable number of zombies at once, based on what we’ve seen. Any questions?”

Jongdae put up his hand. “Yeah. How the hell are we supposed to figure it out, because that’s the most general statement I’ve seen in a while?”

Yixing threw up his hands. “I’d like the answer to that too, honestly, but this is all the information we have.”

Chanyeol shrugged, and gave Jongdae an innocent look. “No one said life would be easy,” he said magnanimously. Jongdae glared at him, and Chanyeol just giggled. Kyungsoo had to restrain a laugh himself. Chanyeol had his moments.

Junmyeon only sighed and opened the book in front of him. “Alright, let’s stop wasting time and get this done. If you guys work hard, I’ll buy you food.”

Jongin and Chanyeol immediately opened their books and started reading, the picture of busy. Kyungsoo chuckled to himself. Ah, college students. He opened his own book, and began the long read ahead.

At about ten at night, Kyungsoo bought the group pizza, and they paused to consider what they’d accomplished so far.

Minseok just shook his head. “None of the guys I’ve been reading about have any sort of interest in doing what this guy has been doing. I’m beginning to think this is useless.”

Junmyeon, who had been eating, swallowed, and said, “We have to try. There is no way I can go up against this guy if we don’t know how powerful he is. And judging by the number of zombies he’s putting out, he’s pretty damn powerful.”

Kyungsoo just kneaded his eyes and kept reading, marking down a name every now and then, and writing the possibly applicable qualities.

“How do we even know this guy is going to be in a book?” Jongin grumbled, messing with his hair. Chanyeol reached over to smooth it back down, and Jongin’s face broke into a sunny grin. Kyungsoo remembered being like that at one point, with his old vampire partner. He vaguely missed those days sometimes, when everything had been perfect for them. But life couldn’t be sunshine and rainbows forever. Kyungsoo let out a silent breath of air and went back to reading, only half paying attention to the conversation around him.

Over the next six hours, their group read and read, occasionally making exclamations, only to find some discrepancy in the information. Jongin and Chanyeol bowed out at 1 am, and Minseok carried a half asleep Baekhyun out at two. Yixing had waved goodbye at 3 am, taking a book with him and promising to continue working as soon as he woke up. Jongdae, who had been staying up later with Kyungsoo, was still fairly awake at 4 am, but Kyungsoo could tell that even he was starting to tire. Kyungsoo’s only limitation was his job and the sun that would begin to rise in a few hours. He had gotten through one thick book and was halfway through his second when he decided he had enough of Jongdae yawning.

Standing, he declared, “Jongdae and I are leaving. He needs sleep, and I need to complete some very important errands before the sun rises.” As in picking up more blood. He nudged Jongdae, who jolted, yelped, and looked up at him. Stupid, he had probably been drowsing, he should have told Kyungsoo earlier so he could have taken him home.

Junmyeon nodded. “I understand. Sehun and I will keep working, but you’ve done plenty.” Sehun walked back into the room from the kitchen, where he had been making coffee. Junmyeon gratefully accepted a cup, and took a long draught. “Go, and you can come back tomorrow. I’ve got a couple of leads in this book, and Sehun thinks he’s onto something, so don’t worry about us.”

Kyungsoo made a noise of agreement, and slipped a bookmark into his book, shutting it and sliding it across the table towards the two of them. He picked up a stretching Jongdae’s plate, and carried it to the kitchen, giving it a perfunctory rinse, then walked back into the dining room where Jongdae was now standing.

“Yep, I’m ready to go home,” Jongdae said sleepily. “Please take me home, Kyungsoo.” Kyungsoo smiled, and walked him with an arm around his waist to the door. Damn, Jongdae was cute when he was tired. They waved goodbye to the two remaining, and drove home.

\--

Kyungsoo woke up from his nap before work to a text blinking on his phone. He rolled over and picked it up, unlocking it and staring at the message in bold black and white from Junmyeon.

We found the guy!!!! Meeting tonight at my place to discuss!!!!!

Well. That was good. He slid out of bed and went downstairs for a carton of blood, still looking through his phone. Lovely, it was supposed to be cloudy today. What a good omen. He texted Junmyeon back.

Great. I’ll be there. Try not to get too excited about it. 

He then sent a message to Jongdae.

Did you see Junmyeon’s text? Make sure you get enough sleep, you wouldn’t want to miss the meeting. 

He didn’t get a reply, which was good. Whenever Kyungsoo usually texted Jongdae, he would receive a reply within minutes because the younger of the pair was always on his phone. But no response meant that he was likely still sleeping.

Kyungsoo pulled on his clothing and nearly skipped outside, looking up at the gray sky with glee. Maybe it wouldn’t rain for a couple days so the cloudy weather would last. Wouldn’t that be nice.

\--

That night at the meeting, Kyungsoo was still in a fantastic mood. The cloudy weather had held up, and although it had made Sehun scowl, Kyungsoo had been glad to open the blinds on the windows.

He sat down at his usual spot at Junmyeon’s big table, with Jongdae scooting in next to him. Kyungsoo gave Jongdae a smile, prompting a raised eyebrow. He wasn’t usually this cheerful, but couldn’t he have a really good day every now and then? Kyungsoo intertwined his fingers with Jongdae’s, and tapped out a beat on the back of his hand.

Once everyone had arrived, Chanyeol bursting in slightly late with a harried looking Jongin in tow, Junmyeon stood at the head of the table and beamed. He looked exhausted, but as long as he was happy... he could get some sleep tonight. Kyungsoo made a mental note to remind him.

“I have news for you guys. First of all, Sehun and I were up until 9 am looking for our necromancer, and we found him.” Here, Junmyeon held up a book depicting some guy named Samuel. “Bad news, he’s quite powerful, and we’re definitely going to need the help of Baekhyun and Minseok’s friends to defeat him.”

“How did you figure it out?” Baekhyun asked.

“The zombies,” Yixing replied. Junmyeon must have filled him in. “Once you look at it, the pattern is unmistakable. This guy has done the same thing before: he’ll try to take control of a town in order to get enough human lives to conjure some demon, and he does this by overrunning the town with a large troop of zombies. That’s exactly in line with what we’re looking at in this situation. As an explanation for the attacks on us, he probably realized that Junmyeon is in control here, and he’s attacking to try and take control of the supernatural aspect of the town.”

Baekhyun nodded slowly with an obviously fake smile on his face. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought, me too.”

Yixing waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it too much. This is definitely the guy.”

“Kay,” said Baekhyun, and sat back, still making that weird face. Kyungsoo could kind of relate to it, actually.

“So what now?” Kyungsoo asked. He could go and fight things, but he had no idea how to go about killing a necromancer. Had he been alone in this situation, he probably would have just moved.

Junmyeon cleared his throat. “While we wait for the other werewolves to arrive, we keep up patrols and search for a way to defeat this Samuel guy. So, basically, we wait.”

“Fair enough,” Kyungsoo shrugged, “I have plenty of time to do that.” He heard Jongdae mutter something along the lines of “damn vampire,” and smiled.

Junmyeon shifted awkwardly. “Uh, I have one more thing to say? Sehun and I are dating now,” he announced. The table immediately went into an uproar, Minseok screaming, “Finally!” and holding his hand out. Oh, right, Kyungsoo owed him money for this one. Sehun had actually told him at work that day, after coming in late, the bags beneath his eyes darker than Kyungsoo’s, so he was prepared. He pulled out his wallet and forked two hundred dollars over to a gleeful Minseok. Jongin, Chanyeol and Baekhyun had formed some sort of circle, and were doing a strange chant paired with a dance. Yixing had tears of joy streaming down his face (that was a little weird, but Kyungsoo was just going to let it go). Sehun took the opportunity to pull Junmyeon back down to his chair and throw an arm over his shoulders.

Kyungsoo looked over at Jongdae, who had gone uncharacteristically silent. That was even stranger than Yixing’s tears.

“Jongdae?” Kyungsoo asked, brows furrowing, “Are you alright?”

Waving a hand absently, Jongdae shook his head. “Fine, don’t worry. Just thinking.”

Kyungsoo shrugged and turned his attention back to Junmyeon, who had gone bright red and was moaning about how he hadn’t made a fuss yesterday when Jongin and Chanyeol had started dating.

Chanyeol replied, “Well, that’s because we weren’t 30 and still single,” and ran shrieking from Junmyeon, who had yelled and started electricity crackling at his fingertips. Kyungsoo had been on the receiving end of that one once. Static shocks weren’t too powerful, but they still hurt. Junmyeon had a stronger version of the attack, too, but it required more energy and the weak one was great for disciplining belligerent friends.

Junmyeon then shouted over the throng. “Okay, can we calm down now? It’s not that big of a deal!” The group slowly quieted and sat back down, Baekhyun still giggling every once in a while. “Just because we’ve got this guy’s name and information doesn’t mean we can stop now. We need to keep patrolling and researching. Who’s up for tonight?” Kyungsoo and Chanyeol both lifted a hand, though Chanyeol did it with significantly more excitement. “Great, okay. Minseok and Baekhyun, be ready to help them out if necessary. Anyone who wants to help Yixing, Sehun, and I research can stay here. We’re going to try out some minor magic tonight as well.”

Jongin looked vaguely interested. “I’m free to help with research.” 

Junmyeon beamed. “Sounds great. Meeting adjourned, see you all soon.”

Kyungsoo tapped Minseok. “I’m going to go patrol near the warehouse tonight, just to let you know.” Minseok nodded. Next to Kyungsoo, Jongdae stood up and pushed in his chair, wordlessly leaving the table. “Hey, Jongdae--” However, Jongdae seemed not to hear or perhaps just ignored Kyungsoo’s words. He walked out of the room, and Kyungsoo heard the front door open and shut.

Um. What.

Kyungsoo took a moment to process what had just happened. He was planning on driving Jongdae home after the meeting, and they were going to eat together before it was time for Kyungsoo to patrol. None of what Jongdae had just done was according to plan.

Well, maybe he could still catch him. Kyungsoo leapt out of his chair, jogging to door and peering out the window. Jongdae was already down the street, and walking fast. Okay, clearly he didn’t want to talk to Kyungsoo, but why?

“Kyungsoo,” Minseok called, coming to stand beside him. Following Kyungsoo’s gesture, he looked out the window and spotted Jongdae hurrying away. Minseok tsked and shook his head.

“Silly of him,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Kyungsoo lifted an eyebrow. “Has he not told you?” Minseok asked with a sense of surprise.

“Told me what?” Kyungsoo inquired. Was he missing something? No, he totally wasn’t missing something. What that fuck was going on?

Minseok walked over to Junmyeon’s sofa and took a seat, beckoning for Kyungsoo to do the same, which he did, slowly and with confusion. “You know how Jongdae, Junmyeon, and I went to college together, right?” Okay, where the fuck was this going? Kyungsoo nodded. “Well, Junmyeon and I were Jongdae’s seniors in the school newspaper. He did graphic design, and we were senior editors. This was his freshman year, by the way.”

He went on. “The three of us spent a lot of time together, along with a couple other people, but Jongdae and Junmyeon in particular. Jongdae... well, he actually had a massive crush on Junmyeon.” Oh, hold the fuck on. Minseok continued talking, Kyungsoo only half paying attention. What the actual fuck? “Junmyeon knew about it, but he turned Jongdae down when he told him. I don’t think I ever knew why, but then we graduated, and the next time we met up with Jongdae he was back to normal.”

Oh, okay. Sure. Jongdae clearly still had feelings for Junmyeon, so why the fuck was he bothering with Kyungsoo? Was this relationship they had going some kind of fucking game for him? When Kyungsoo got into this, he was serious. Was Jongdae less so? This was so not okay. Kyungsoo had opened up to him, told him all of that, for what? Jongdae wanted to give him the silent treatment? Sure. Fine. Kyungsoo could do that, too. In fact, Kyungsoo was really good at the silent treatment.

Minseok was staring him with a worried look on his face. “I’m pretty sure Jongdae got over it, Kyungsoo he probably has some reason. You should try and talk to him about it.”

Kyungsoo stood up, expressionless. How about doing the opposite? That sounded great. If Jongdae wanted to fucking play with him, he could fucking play back. “I’m going patrolling; tell Chanyeol that he can miss out tonight,” he said in a flat voice, and walked out the door, nearly slamming it behind him. He got in his car and drove, lost in his thoughts. Some zombie was going to get it tonight.

\--

He showed up for work the next day, still angry, but a bit calmer than he was last night. Jongdae didn’t have the fucking right to walk out like that, and if he came in today, Kyungsoo was going to be shelving all day.

Sehun blinked at him. “What got stuck up your ass last night?” he asked, already filling in information on their computer.

“Oh, I don’t know, the knowledge that Jongdae used to have a crush on Junmyeon, and decided to totally ignore me after learning that you two were dating. No offence towards you, by the way, I’m very happy for you both, but my current emotion right now is mostly anger at that asshole,” Kyungsoo snarled. Jongdae hadn’t even texted.

“Ah,” Sehun said slowly. “Well, I think you should take these carts, and engage in some peaceful shelving. It might calm you down a little.”

“I was planning on it anyway. If Jongdae comes, tell him to back the fuck up and get his ass right out of here.” Kyungsoo grabbed both carts and dragged them deep into the shelves. The nerve... Sehun was right, though, he did have to calm himself, though he doubted shelving books would help. There hadn’t been any zombies out last night, perhaps he would patrol again tonight and try to kill something. Violence always helped even out his mood.

He spent the next two hours putting books away, returning to refill the carts a few times. Kyungsoo took the time to do some more thinking about his relationship with Jongdae. He had come in with a lot of expectations, actually. As Kyungsoo was one for long-term commitment, he had expected Jongdae to be the same. And was it really his fault if he still had feelings for Junmyeon? It’s not like he had made any sort of promises to Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo stopped shelving for a moment to sit back on his heels, piles of books surrounding him. What did Kyungsoo want out of their relationship? Was he really expecting to find another life partner? Jongdae was human. That was never going to work out, unless he turned Jongdae into a vampire, or something, and he wouldn’t wish his existence on anyone. Also, there was the issue that Jongdae would forget everything prior to becoming a vampire. He doubted that Jongdae would want that.

Clearly their relationship was more than just attraction, and Kyungsoo liked the direction it had been going. But was this really what Kyungsoo wanted? Maybe he should just break it off, and stay single for a while again. Maybe he could meet another vampire, someone with the same experiences and longevity as him.

But he did really like Jongdae, and that’s why all of this hurt so much.

At around 3 pm, he heard Jongdae’s voice from his spot in the shelves about 15 meters away from the desk. Asshole. Footsteps came up behind him, and Kyungsoo studiously ignored whatever was happening, and bent to slot another book into place. Without looking, he pulled the cart behind him to the next spot.

“Kyungsoo. What are you doing?” Jongdae asked, a note of confusion in his voice. Kyungsoo just continued in his work. Nope, he wasn’t going to crack. He also couldn’t deal with this right now. Kyungsoo needed way more time to think. “Kyungsoo, why are you ignoring me?” Like he was going to answer that. “Look at me.” Also a no. “Kyungsoo. What did I do?” He should know very well what he did.

Jongdae made a frustrated noise. “What the hell am I supposed to do if you won’t talk to me?” He turned around and called out quietly, “Sehun! Why won’t Kyungsoo talk to me?”

“Hmm?” Sehun said. Kyungsoo wasn’t that far away, he could still hear them talking. “Why won’t he talk to you? I’m not sure, he doesn’t usually get this mad.”

Jongdae grunted. “But why, what is he mad about?” Kyungsoo continued shelving. He’d have to berate Sehun later for giving in.

“He said something about last night when he came in. Like, you had a crush on Junmyeon at one point, and then you stormed out after the meeting? Not that I’m upset about you having a crush on Junmyeon, just as long as you don’t try to steal him.”

“Oh, shit, that’s not what I... no, fuck, I’m over Junmyeon, I have been for years; Kyungsoo needs to talk to me about this.” Yeah, well Kyungsoo didn’t really feel like talking at the moment. He was calmer, and significantly less angry than he had been when he walked in, but he still needed time.

Jongdae’s footsteps came back over to where Kyungsoo was crouched in front of the shelves. “Kyungsoo, please,” he begged, “You have to listen to me about this.”

Fine. He’d give in, if it was to get Jongdae to leave him alone. Kyungsoo met Jongdae’s eyes for the first time that day. “Look, Jongdae. I don’t care about who you liked or currently like, but the fact is I need some time to think.”

Jongdae looked vaguely taken aback. “What?”

“Like I told you, this is the first time I’ve tried to be in a relationship for a while, and I think I just need some space to reevaluate where I stand on all of this, okay?” Kyungsoo said quietly. “I’d appreciate it if you could leave me alone at work today.”

Taking a few steps back, Jongdae nodded blankly. “Okay, yeah, sure, I will. Just, text me or something?” he asked softly.

“Maybe.”

That seemed to be good enough for Jongdae, because he turned with a small wave, and left down the stairs to the second floor. Sehun walked over to stand next to him, where Kyungsoo hadn’t moved.

“Was that really necessary? Couldn’t you have just heard him out, at least?” Sehun asked tiredly. “Aren’t you being a little ridiculous? He’s probably going to go home and cry.”

Kyungsoo let out a whine, and let his head rest on the shelf in front of him. “I don’t know what I want out of this, Sehun. And I don’t know what Jongdae wants. So I think I need to figure out what I want before I even start to think about how Jongdae feels about me,” he said hoarsely, turning to look up at Sehun, “It’s been too long since I’ve tried to date seriously.”

Sehun sat down next to him. “Is it really any different than the first time around?” he asked, picking up one of the books Kyungsoo was supposed to be putting back and flipping through it.

Was it? Kyungsoo certainly thought so. “Jongdae isn’t a vampire. He won’t be around forever, not like me. And remember what happened the last time I got involved with someone and they ended up dying? I spent a hundred years trying to date again and failing. Call that childish, but I don’t think I can really go through the same thing again.”

Looking up at him, Sehun frowned. “Kyungsoo, I think you’re missing the point. Life is a lot more spontaneous than that; you really don’t know what’s going to happen. Jongdae could end up living longer than you think, you could end up dying, the list goes on.”

Kyungsoo looked down at his hands. “Maybe I’m afraid of that spontaneity.”

“That sounds like it could be the case right now. I think you need to relax, and this may sound stupid, but follow your heart and your gut for once. Stop fucking thinking, man,” Sehun advised, now reading the summary on the jacket of the book.

Kyungsoo lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not a man, I’m a vampire.”

Sehun gave him a weird look. “You are male, though, correct?”

“Would it matter if I wasn’t?”

“Well, no, in which case I would be sorry for assuming. I read your book about vampires but I don’t think I remember the chapter about intersex.”

Kyungsoo let out a quiet chuckle. “No, the editors made me take it out. Something about, ‘not appealing to the public.’ Bastards.”

Joining him in laughing, Sehun shut the book he had started reading and folded his hands in his lap. “But seriously, I meant that in the colloquial sense.”

“Oh, I know, I was just messing with you,” Kyungsoo snickered, “And if you were curious, I am actually male.”

“I mean, it’s really none of my business. I don’t like to make assumptions, and nobody needs to feel pressured to tell that sort of thing to me. Unless we’re dating, I don’t want to know what’s in your pants.”

Kyungsoo patted Sehun’s shoulder. “Good for you, Sehunnie.”

“But I do have a question: do intersex vampires actually exist?” Sehun asked ponderingly.

Frowning, Kyungsoo looked up to think. “I don’t ever remember meeting any, but like we discussed, it isn’t really very obvious. I don’t actually know.”

Sehun shrugged. “Was worth a shot. I’m glad you’re cheering up a bit, though.”

Kyungsoo let out a barked laugh. “Yeah, thanks for that. Now get back to work, you delinquent.” Sehun just grinned and brushed off his pants, walking quickly and quietly back to their desk.

He had given a lot for Kyungsoo to think about.


	5. Chapter 5

In the meantime, there were zombies to kill. There was nothing more fun than taking frustration out on already doomed beings, where he didn’t have the inklings of self-doubt about killing something with a life. Zombies were already fucked; it was Kyungsoo’s job to put them out of their misery. Making someone’s corpse walk around wasn’t very reverential, was it? People were supposed to respect the dead, not parade their bodies around. At least, that’s how Kyungsoo rationalized it.

He had called Minseok and told him that he’d take his and Baekhyun’s shifts tonight, for which they were grateful. Something about trying out some new restaurant, he remembered. Didn’t really matter, but at least his rage was helping someone.

Kyungsoo was walking in the park again (not the one near Jongdae’s house, but the one they had fought the zombies in the first time) when he smelled decaying flesh. Perfect.

He leapt into a sprint, following his nose, and found a large pack of zombies within two minutes. Even better, he had only been expecting a few. Kyungsoo wasted no time in letting his claws flick out. Normally he would use a weapon to make sure none of the filth got on him, but he already smelled, and there was just something more satisfying about ripping something to pieces with your bare hands. Plus, his clothes could be thrown away when he was finished, and he had some wipes in his car.

“Come at me, you weak-ass motherfuckers!” he roared, and jumped into action, ripping heads from throats and scratching the shit out of anything that came close. It only took him ten minutes to have the whole pack reduced to twitching bodies.

Standing in front of the mess, he wiped a bit of blood off his jaw with his shirt sleeve. That had been freeing, but not nearly enough to satisfy him.

Suddenly, a figure dropped out of a tree about five meters in front of him. Kyungsoo nearly flinched, but experience helped him remain looking calm. He hadn’t even noticed this guy; clearly Kyungsoo’s emotions were distracting him.

“You did a nice job of cleaning that up quickly,” said a new voice. Kyungsoo flicked the hair out of his eyes. Before him was a dark-haired female vampire, dressed in fishnets, black platform shoes, and an exceedingly tight red dress. Was that latex? “I’m Danni, by the way. Who are you?” Ohhh boy. Someone was a little full of herself.

“Count Chocula,” Kyungsoo replied with a perfectly straight face. “Don’t tell anyone, but my favorite cereal is actually Booberry.”

A vein twitched in Danni’s forehead. “If you think you can just joke around, you’re in for a surprise.”

Well. That was news to Kyungsoo. “I’ll keep that in mind when I’m laughing next to your corpse later. Are we going to sit here and chat or actually fight?”

“You’re talking awfully big for someone dressed only in a holey t-shirt and nasty sweatpants. Couldn’t even dress up to see me?” The woman smirked, and took a couple of paces forward, swinging her hips. “Clearly you’re inexperienced. I bet you’re not a day over 50. I’m 153,” she gloated, and tossed her short, black, glossy hair.

Kyungsoo thought for a second before replying. “I’m 50 and a day, my birthday was yesterday.”

Snarling, Danni flicked her claws out. “I’m going to rip you to pieces, you little shit. Get ready to die.” She leapt at him, and Kyungsoo neatly sidestepped the attack, sticking a foot out to send her sprawling in the dirt. Who wears heels to a fight? Kyungsoo was in a sensible pair of athletic shoes. Springing up again, she attempted to throw in a couple of punches, but Kyungsoo continued to dodge.

He snickered, dancing backwards to avoid her attacks. “Come on, you were talking all this shit, and now you don’t have anything to back it up?” Kyungsoo paused in his movement to throw a fist at her sternum, sending her flying into a tree. She slid down, and rose again heavily.

“I wasn’t attacking for real, but now you’re going to get it,” she growled, running at him again. Kyungsoo merely tried to restrain his laughter, and kicked her in the gut this time, following through with a blow to the back of her head as she went down. Holy hell, this was funny.

Danni tried to counterattack by kicking at the back of his knee, but Kyungsoo just used the maneuver to drop down and use his other leg to sweep hers out from under her, knocking her to the ground. For shits and giggles, he took a few steps back, allowing her to get up again.

“For future reference, I’m actually 327. Don’t assume anyone’s age until you’ve actually fought them, idiot. Not that it matters, because if you’re stupid enough to attack me, I’m just going to kill you.” Kyungsoo said, then paused. “Why are you doing this, anyway?”

She scowled. “None of your business.”

Kyungsoo raised his eyebrows. “Are you fighting me because someone told you to? That’s stupid.”

“If I kill you, I get whatever I want,” Danni snapped, swiping at him with her claws. Kyungsoo simply stepped back.

“Yeah, but who are you working for? Is it the necromancer? Because I guarantee he’s not going to give you whatever you want,” Kyungsoo said, smirking. “He’s going to fuck you over.”

Danni growled low, creeping forward. “He’s going to kill you all anyway, and give us all the humans in this town. There’s nothing you can do to stop us.”

“I think you’re wrong about that, for the record,” Kyungsoo said, and then put up his fists. “Come on, then, let’s have a real fight.”

She leaped up, trying to smash him to the ground, but Kyungsoo just elbowed her in the face, and continued to attack. Danni could block a few things, so she clearly had some kind of training. Unfortunately for her, though, Kyungsoo had more. At an opportune moment, he grabbed her neck and used it to force her to the ground, pinning her wrists.

Danni looked around wildly. Clearly she had realize the outcome of the fight, and was looking for some sort of escape route. She stilled suddenly, and arched her back, letting her eyelids drift down until her eyes were half closed.

“Hmm, this is nice, isn’t it?” she purred, testing his grip on her arms. Kyungsoo held her firm.

“No, not really. Can’t say I’m a fan.” Was she trying to seduce him? This was going to be good.

“Aww, come on. Why don’t we stop all this silly fighting and have a little fun, huh?”

Kyungsoo smiled apologetically. “I’m taken, sorry.”

Danni’s eyes flashed. “No harm in a quick jaunt. Just relax, let’s fuck, okay?” Poor, naive little Danni.

“I don’t think so,” Kyungsoo chuckled, “See, I’m not really interested in your type. If you thought you could get out of this situation with sex, you’re in for a surprise. Because,” he leaned in close to whisper in her ear, “I’m gay.” Kyungsoo moved away enough to take in the look of shock on her face, then ripped her throat out with his teeth.

\--

After work the next morning, Kyungsoo obviously didn’t go to the meeting that night (as he would prefer not to see Jongdae), opting to stay home and put on a movie. It wasn’t his turn to patrol, and he still hadn’t texted Jongdae, so he was ready to relax and catch up with a few things he had wanted to see.

He popped a French film he had been waiting on in the mail for ages, and settled down in his favorite chair, propping his feet up on the coffee table in front of him. The music lulled him into a trance, and he wriggled around to find the right position.

While the movie played, Kyungsoo thought. Sehun had a good point: he was indeed trying to plot his life a bit too hard. And he really did have to keep Jongdae’s feelings in mind. It wouldn’t do to play around with someone’s emotions, being hot one day and cold the next. He’d have to make up his mind sooner or later... Maybe he just needed a catalyst of some sort.

On another note, his walls did actually look nice in the lavender color that Jongdae had picked out. The now slightly cream-colored ceiling complimented it in a way Kyungsoo would never have been able to do on his own, and the colors gave the room more life than his old color scheme had, even with the brightness of the blue. Although it did seem like he was missing something... He should let Jongdae buy him some more furniture. Kyungsoo hadn’t originally intended to stay here long, but now he had friends. Friends that wouldn’t last forever, but they were friends all the same, and Kyungsoo wanted to keep them while he could. And he would be less likely to suddenly pack up and leave if he had a house that was well furnished, one that felt like home instead of just somewhere he slept.

Kyungsoo would have to text Jongdae and ask him... He had thought of Jongdae just then. It had come naturally, instinctively even. Maybe that meant something. Maybe it related to what Sehun had told him a couple of days ago, about listening to his heart and gut instead of his head. Kyungsoo shook his head. He’d have to think about it more, but the beginning credits to the movie were ending, and he really wanted to watch this.

\--

Kyungsoo was feeling a lot better the next day at the library. Still a little unsure, but a lot less angry.

Sehun was glad. “I told you all that shelving would help,” he commented lazily.

“Oh, that’s not what did it,” Kyungsoo hummed almost cheerfully. “I had a little fun last night.” He had to shower for a few hours just to get the smell out, but it was totally worth it.

Sehun’s eyes widened. “What do you mean by a little fun? You didn’t cheat on Jongdae, did you?”

“No, no,” Kyungsoo laughed. “I just killed some things. They tried really hard to fight back, but as you can see, I won.” Sehun just nodded slowly, unwilling to question him any further. “Anyway, I’m going to finish up the rest of the shelving, then I’ll get back to helping you with the card catalog.” Kyungsoo grabbed the cart, walking back into the shelves.

Awhile later, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and a very familiar voice called out. “Sehun! No, I want to talk to you.” That was fine, Jongdae could talk to whoever the fuck he wanted, though Kyungsoo was mildly insulted that he hadn’t come to talk to him yet.

He heard their voices murmuring for about ten minutes, then Jongdae’s footsteps went back down the stairs. Huh?

Finishing up the last of his shelving, Kyungsoo came back to the desk, staring in the direction Jongdae had gone. “What was up with that?” he asked, turning to Sehun.

Sehun held up a card made of lavender-colored paper. “He had some things he needed to tell me about, and he asked me to give you this.” He handed over the card, crossing his arms and waiting expectantly for Kyungsoo’s reaction.

Kyungsoo took the card. The lavender paper was heavy and smooth, and probably fairly expensive if he had to guess. The outside was blank, so he opened it to find an invitation written in a rather pretty, flowing font.

Kyungsoo: I know you said you wanted some space to think about us, but I want to have my fair chance to argue my position. Would you do me the favor of meeting me in the park by my house after you get off work tonight? –Jongdae

He looked up at Sehun. “He wants me to meet him.”

Sehun lifted an eyebrow. “Well? Are you going to?”

“I... I don’t know,” Kyungsoo admitted, brushing a thumb over the text. He had never seen this font before, and wondered if Jongdae had created it himself.

“I really think you should, Kyungsoo. You can think all you want, but you have to give the man his chance,” Sehun advised, still observing him closely.

Kyungsoo scowled at him. “Remember who the older one here is,” he said and flicked Sehun’s forehead, causing him to yelp and reach up to rub the spot. “You have a good point, though, I might as well go.”

Sehun placed a hand over his heart. “I’m so proud of you, you adorable yet ancient emotionally stunted little vampire,” he mock-wept, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes.

“Brat,” Kyungsoo said fondly as he punched Sehun in the stomach.

\--

Kyungsoo parked his car. He sat there for a few seconds. What did Jongdae want to tell him? Hopefully he would explain himself. Well. No sense in prolonging his agony. Kyungsoo got out of the car, locked it, and began a slow, meandering walk along the park’s path. Jongdae was kind of stupid to come out here alone at night, but whatever.

After a few minutes of walking, Kyungsoo spotted Jongdae’s figure standing under one of the lights. He wandered over, halting a short distance away from him.

“I got these for you,” Jongdae said, and pulled a bouquet of lavender out from behind his back, “And I want to apologize, and to offer you an explanation.” Kyungsoo took a few steps towards Jongdae, hesitantly taking the bundle of flowers. He inhaled slightly, tasting their fragrance. Jongdae smelled like this, sometimes. Favorite color, much?

“I’ll listen,” he said, and watched as Jongdae gave him a small smile and shuffled.

“I did have a crush on Junmyeon my freshman year of college; I won’t deny that,” Jongdae began, “but hear me out. I confessed to him, and he turned me down. When I asked him why, he told me it was because I’m human, and he couldn’t protect me.

“So, when he started dating Sehun, a human, I was confused. I was shocked; it got me wondering if Junmyeon had said that just to get me off his back.” Oh. Ohhhhh. Kyungsoo got it.

Jongdae continued. “I’ve dated people since, of course, and I’m totally over him. It was just, thinking that he might have done that just to get me off his back? That hurt a little.”

“I understand,” Kyungsoo said. Jongdae gave him another smile.

“But I went to talk to Junmyeon about it yesterday. He told me that he was telling the truth, back then. He really couldn’t protect me if we started dating, and he said he wouldn’t have turned me down if he was as powerful as he is today. He also said the deciding factor was that he was just so busy learning his craft that he wouldn’t have had time.”

Kyungsoo lifted his eyebrows.

“I know, I know, that was a little much, for him to say he would have accepted,” Jongdae said sheepishly, “but we don’t feel that way anymore. We’ve gotten over each other, and we’re both... involved with other people. And we agreed that we’re both very happy where we are. You can ask Junmyeon yourself if you don’t believe me.”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “No, I trust you. You trusted me, and I’m sorry that I doubted you. I should have discussed this with you earlier.”

Jongdae took a few more steps, closing most of the gap between them. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left that night, and I should have told you about college.”

Bringing the flowers back up to his face to smell, Kyungsoo took a moment to digest Jongdae’s words. “We’re both sorry,” he concluded, “And we should learn from this. Let’s not keep things from each other, and if we have problems, we need to talk it out, instead of ignoring each other.”

“The ignoring was mostly you, to be honest,” Jongdae pointed out.

Kyungsoo snorted. “Yeah, okay, and I’m sorry. Can we kiss now?”

Jongdae let out his bright peal of laughter. Damn, Kyungsoo had missed that. “Naturally,” he said, and allowed Kyungsoo to wrap an arm around his back and kiss him.

Jongdae pulled back a little sooner than Kyungsoo wanted him to, but ten minutes was probably enough. “Okay, this is great, and all, but you’re a vampire and not really affected by the cold. But I’m human, and I am, so can we go inside now?” he said, sniffling. Oh, right, humans.

“Sure, sure. We can go to my house instead. It’s probably safer that way, too,” Kyungsoo chuckled, and reached down to interlace their fingers. Jongdae grinned at him.

“As long as I can stay over.”

“I was going to force you, actually.”

\--

At their meeting at Junmyeon’s the next day, Minseok was making gagging noises directed at Kyungsoo and Jongdae. Maybe the way Jongdae’s arm was wrapped around Kyungsoo’s shoulders had done it, or perhaps it was the kisses he was planting on his cheek every now and then, or maybe the sickeningly sweet smiles they were sharing.

Kyungsoo didn’t care, honestly. Might as well take advantage of the bliss while it lasted. Though, if they fought again (which they would, that was inevitable), he was going to do everything he could to make sure they didn’t have any miscommunications. Jongdae was exactly what he needed after a long period of nothing.

Junmyeon shot Minseok a glare, and Minseok just gave him a look in return.

“Anyway,” Junmyeon started, “Baekhyun has good news. Apparently the other werewolves are on their way, and should be here in a few days’ time. While we wait it out, I was thinking that we should start formulating some kind of plan.”

Chanyeol raised a hand. “Don’t we need a little more information to do that?”

Sehun triumphantly slammed a large sheet of thin paper onto the table. “Yes, we do, and I just happened to find an old blueprint for the abandoned warehouse. Well,” he corrected himself, “It wasn’t really a coincidence; I spent about a week looking for this. I had to call in a favor from some guy I know working in City Hall to get me a few parts of it.” He pointed out some obviously taped in pieces of the blueprint. “But we have everything, so that’s good. Although I think some parts could be out of date, since this is from the early 1960’s, and they may have done renovations to update technology and such since then.”

“That’s understandable,” Yixing said, already leaning over the paper, long fingers tracing out a few boxes. Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes. Yixing was looking for the restrooms in the building, apparently. This man had priorities. Kyungsoo could respect that. “Still, this will be useful even if some things are inaccurate. We just need a fairly large open space so they’ll come to us.”

Kyungsoo stood up, and leaned over the map, pointing out the large room the zombies had been in when he had infiltrated the warehouse. “This might be a good spot. We’d have to do something about the zombies, but then at least we wouldn’t have any surprises.”

“Yeah, I could just burn them all. I’m getting better at not burning down the other things, too,” Chanyeol added, drumming on the table. Baekhyun joined him to make some sort of beat.

“Are you good enough to not burn the whole building down with us in it?” Junmyeon asked worriedly. “One mistake, and it might not matter what we do, we could all be dead within an instant. Plus, I’m most likely going to be focused on the necromancer, so I won’t be able to put out any of your fires.”

Chanyeol frowned, his brow furrowing. “I’m not sure. I can do my best to keep it contained, though, and I could probably get some extra practice in before we do this.”

Jongdae nodded. “I can work with you on that, I had some good ideas for exercises the other day.” Chanyeol beamed at him.

“What can I do?” Jongin asked, a little awkward. “I’m not really good at fighting, and I can’t burn things like Chanyeol... All I have is the talking to plants thing, and that’s really only useful for gardening. We nymphs aren’t exactly meant to be violent.”

Baekhyun tapped his shoulder, getting Jongin’s attention. “I could help you learn a few techniques to protect yourself from stuff? I was going to work on fighting with Kyungsoo and Minseok anyway, and I’m sure we could include you in our group.”

“Yeah, there are a few things I could teach you about vampires that would be helpful to know,” Kyungsoo added.

Jongin ran a hand through his hair. “I just don’t think I want to fight. It’s not that I don’t have the strength, it’s that I don’t have a violent bone in my body, unlike you guys.”

Sehun sat back, thinking. “Jongin’s right, I’m pretty much the same way, but I really want to do something. Since we’re both bad at hand-to-hand combat, why don’t we focus on something long-distance?” he mused, picking up a pencil and paper.

That was actually a really good point. “Maybe we could have something like a grenade that you could throw,” Kyungsoo suggested. “Junmyeon, could we make something magical that would work like that? Actual assault weapons are difficult to get your hands on, legally or not.”

Yixing jumped in. “I’ve made fireworks a couple of times, actually. I bet I could rig up something similar to that.” He grabbed Sehun’s pencil and made a few sketches. “I don’t think this would be very effective in killing zombies, though, unless we put some sort of magic charm on it, and that’s not really my specialty. I do more rituals.”

Peering down at the drawing, Junmyeon ran a hand through his hair. “I might be able to find something. There are a couple of charms for explosions that I could work on modifying... we would need to do something about the timing, though.”

“Are any of the charms on paper?” Yixing asked, tapping the diagram. Kyungsoo knew very little about wizard and shaman magic. Maybe he should ask Junmyeon to teach him when this was over.

Junmyeon shook his head. “No, unfortunately not. Wait, do you think we could do that? Normally I just speak them, or use my staff.”

Yixing thumped the table. “Yes, exactly. I want to know if we can write them down. I’ve done some stuff with that before and I think it could work. And then once we finished, Jongin and the others can just copy the paper and make them using our instructions, and we can just enchant them later.”

Junmyeon looked excited. “I’m not sure how long it will take us, but I bet we could get something down in less than a day.”

Jongin looked a little less stressed. “As long as it won’t cut into your preparation for defeating the necromancer; that’s our main priority.”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “No, this is a good idea, even if it takes a bit. The preparation they do won’t be worth anything if we can’t get to the necromancer in the first place, and these explosion things you guys will have can help with that,” he explained, leaning forward. “This guy isn’t going to be easy to hit in his own territory if he has all of his cronies around, and we’re not going to be able to kill each and every one of them.”

Jongdae spoke up. “Kyungsoo’s right. Plus, if I help with that, too, we’ve got a better chance of taking larger quantities down. I can’t fight hand to hand, no way, I just need to be able to protect myself.” Kyungsoo could do the protecting, honestly. In fact, someone would be hard pressed to prevent him from doing so.

“Alright, we’ll get to work on that right away,” Junmyeon said, standing. “Let’s break for now and see what we can get accomplished tonight.”

The group dispersed in smaller units. Kyungsoo went with Minseok and Baekhyun as planned to Junmyeon’s backyard, where they spread out. He bounced on the balls of his feet, ready to fight.

Minseok indicated for Baekhyun to transform, and turned to Kyungsoo. “The main concern about being a human-shaped figure fighting a wolf is your size, strength, and weight. We wolves are on the heavy side, so if you get pinned by one of us, you don’t have a good chance of getting up by trying to roll over.”

Once Baekhyun had finished, Minseok beckoned at him. “Now, Kyungsoo, if you don’t mind, Baekhyun is going to get on top of you, and we’re going to go through some good ways to break his hold.”

“Sounds fine with me.” Luckily, Kyungsoo was in old sweats again, and didn’t particularly mind getting his clothes dirty. He dropped to the ground, and laid back. Baekhyun climbed on top, and used his massive paws to pin Kyungsoo’s arms to the ground. The large wolf took the opportunity to lick Kyungsoo’s face sloppily, and Kyungsoo glared at him.

He could hear Minseok chuckling in the background. “Don’t worry, he’s just having fun. Now, here are your options, and some of these work better depending on how strong you are. If your legs are free, you could try kicking him in the kidneys, or even in the groin. That definitely still hurts for wolves. Gonads are not meant to be bruised.” Kyungsoo brought his feet up and gently nudged Baekhyun’s stomach, getting a happy bark in return. He assumed that meant he was doing something right.

“Yeah, like that,” Minseok said. “You definitely need a lot of strength for that to work; however, if your arms are pinned and he’s got his jaws around your neck, that’s probably your best bet.” Kyungsoo took note of that. “But if your arms are free”—at this, Baekhyun got off Kyungsoo’s arms and opened his mouth, placing his teeth carefully around Kyungsoo’s neck—“and he’s got your neck, use your hands to pull out his throat. Don’t bother going for the chest or heart, because that’s what we have fur for. You need to get us at the weak spots. Those are the back of the neck, the front of the neck, the eyes, the stomach, and I guess you could try wrecking the tendons in our legs. It would make it hard, but not impossible for us to fight, but if you’re struggling and that’s all you can get, go for it.”

Kyungsoo brought a hand up to try. Yeah, he could see himself clawing an eye or two. That would work as a distraction for long enough that he would be able to use the strength in his legs to throw Baekhyun, or another wolf, off him. He would have to be prepared to maim, though, so fighting against his friends probably wasn’t going to be very good practice. “Thanks. Those were some helpful tips, got anything else?”

Minseok scratched at his forehead. “Nothing I can think of at the moment,” he said, shifting his weight. “We could work on sparring, though. Everyone keep their claws covered, and Kyungsoo, just avoid getting pinned. Baekhyun and I know how to fight vampires already so that’s not as big of a deal.”

Kyungsoo nodded, and sheathed his claws. It felt strange to be in a fighting stance without them out, like he was naked or something.

Minseok took a few moments to transform (a process Kyungsoo had always found fascinating), and then leapt at Kyungsoo without warning. Kyungsoo jumped back, snarling, and turned his body so Minseok just barely flew past him. He was, however, prepared for Baekhyun’s advance, and danced out of his way, throwing a few pulled punches and elbowing him once in the ribs as gently as he could.

While he was distracted with Baekhyun, Minseok took him down by the back. Kyungsoo used the momentum to get them rolling across the ground, and sprang off Minseok when he was under him. He backed up until he could see the two wolves together.

Okay, so clearly Kyungsoo had a problem with fighting multiple enemies at once. That actually made sense, because vampires tended to be on the solitary side, and he usually only fought one of them at a time. Hmm. Maybe the key was to keep both enemies in sight, so he could be in control of the situation. Or maybe he just needed to focus more of his awareness on the other enemy.

Time to go offensive. This time, Kyungsoo ran at Minseok, sidestepping him at the last second to land a soft blow on the base of his skull (nothing that would be painful) and sprang away, circling around to Baekhyun to mock-punching his jaw. The two wolves then sprang at him at once, and Kyungsoo was knocked down again, pinned on one side by Minseok and on the other by Baekhyun.

Baekhyun transformed, and grinned down at Kyungsoo. “I think your best bet is just to keep running away,” he suggested.

Kyungsoo groaned. “This really isn’t working out for me; you’re right. Maybe I should let you guys take care of the wolves.”

Minseok also transformed, and leaned back, taking his weight off Kyungsoo. “Well, as long as you can defend yourself, you shouldn’t have to worry. You did get a couple blows on us,” he reminded Kyungsoo, “and those would have done considerable damage had you actually been fighting. You have to remember to go for the weak spots, is all.”

Kyungsoo sat up, and nodded slowly. “It’s the same with vampires, I guess. Practice will help, though, so let’s keep going.” He stood and brushed himself off, putting his fists up again.

Both Minseok and Baekhyun transformed, and then one after another they ran at him.

The three of them fought for a good two hours before calling it quits. It was getting far too late at night for Baekhyun and Minseok to be out messing around if they had to work in the morning (Kyungsoo wasn’t actually sure what they did, but he knew it paid well enough for them to be comfortable).

They trooped back inside, the two werewolves dripping in sweat, to find Yixing and Junmyeon bent over scraps of paper, arguing lightheartedly. Sehun was perched on Junmyeon’s counter reading, and the others were in the living room, looking at the diagram of the warehouse. Kyungsoo sat down lightly, but Baekhyun and Minseok slumped into a pile on the floor, moaning.

“Kyungsoo’s such a slave driver,” Baekhyun whined, lifting his head up slightly, then letting it hit the floor again. “We’ve been fighting this whole time.”

Minseok groaned. “He didn’t pull some of those punches, either. I’m sore in places I never wanted to be sore.”

Kyungsoo’s stomach growled. Their fight hadn’t come without consequences for him, either. Jongdae looked up at the sound, and lifted an eyebrow, making a gesture towards his neck.

Kyungsoo shook his head slightly. Not here, he mouthed. Jongdae rolled his eyes and stood up.

“I’m going to go get the mud out of Kyungsoo’s hair,” he announced to the room at large, and dragged Kyungsoo to Junmyeon’s bathroom. 

Kyungsoo heard Chanyeol calling from the living room. “I better not hear any moaning in there!”

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Park,” Kyungsoo growled, before Jongdae ushered him inside and shut the door. 

“So, let’s get to it. Should I sit on the toilet lid, or something?” Jongdae asked, already looking for a good spot.

Kyungsoo heaved a sigh. “Do we have to do this right here and now? And I’m not really sure you’re fully recovered from the last time I took blood, anyway.”

Jongdae waved him off. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve been eating a lot of meat to counteract that. And I started jogging again, that helps, right?”

Kyungsoo nodded. “But that still doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re here, in Junmyeon’s bathroom. Remember how drowsy you were last time?”

“I can handle it, Kyungsoo. Besides, we’re going to leave in another hour anyway.”

“Great, then we can just wait until we get home.” Kyungsoo’s stomach betrayed him with another rumble.

Jongdae smirked. “But clearly you’re hungry now, Kyungsoo. We can’t do this on a bed all of the time, so I might as well get used to it. Just bite me already.”

Kyungsoo rubbed a hand over his face. “I worry for your self-preservation skills sometimes. Fine, I’ll do it.”

Jongdae plopped down on the toilet lid, grinning. “Yeah, you’d think this would be the other way around. I guess I’m lucky to be dating such a gentleman.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes as he nudged Jongdae over a bit, then planted a knee next to his hip and gripped his shoulders. He was surprised at how natural biting came, even after so long of not doing it. “I’m just trying to be careful. You can’t blame me for that,” he said, and undid a few buttons on his shirt, allowing the collar to slip off Jongdae’s shoulder. Jongdae himself shivered (though not from the cold) as he looked up at Kyungsoo.

“No, I can’t, and I’m glad that you take such good care of me,” Jongdae murmured, and swallowed. Kyungsoo’s eyes followed the motion. Such a lovely throat. The marks from last time had long faded, which was good. He felt a little better that he wasn’t causing permanent damage to Jongdae.

He cupped Jongdae’s jaw with one hand, and slid his chilly fingers over Jongdae’s collarbone on the exposed side, and bent down. Kyungsoo could feel Jongdae trembling, but he knew the other man was certain about his decision, so he sunk his teeth into his neck.

Jongdae stiffened, and then relaxed against Kyungsoo’s body, his breath going slow and deep. “This actually feels really nice,” he said into Kyungsoo’s shirt. Kyungsoo had never seen someone who liked this as much as Jongdae did. Most people he hadn’t killed completely had borne it with a grimace, but Jongdae seemed to be legitimately enjoying himself. Then again, he had never bitten a human that he was in a relationship with.

A few more moments of gentle sucking, and Kyungsoo pulled back, licking the wounds to help seal them. He looked at Jongdae, whose eyes were half-lidded. And then looked down.

“Are you hard?”

Jongdae shrugged, and reached for the buttons on his shirt. “Yeah, a little. Is that not common?”

“Not exactly, but it doesn’t particularly matter. You enjoy this?” Kyungsoo knocked Jongdae’s hands away and did the buttons up himself, making sure the bite marks weren’t visible. He straightened Jongdae’s collar, then fixed his hair a bit. There, now Jongdae looked less like he just had sex, and more like he was just a little tired.

“I guess? Maybe I’m just a sucker for danger,” Jongdae said with a wink, and stood. He checked his hair in the mirror, adjusting his pants a bit, and nodded at Kyungsoo’s fussing.

“That would actually make sense, seeing as you can’t stop getting yourself into trouble,” Kyungsoo said thoughtfully. “I’ll think about it. In the meantime, go get yourself a glass of juice or something. I didn’t take much, but you’ll need the liquids and the sugar.”

Jongdae gave him a brief hug. “Yeah, sure. I’m not stupid, you know.” He opened the door and sauntered out, Kyungsoo following behind.

“Sometimes I have my doubts,” Kyungsoo muttered almost inaudibly. What kind of human would willingly offer to be bitten?

\--

Kyungsoo was trying not to combust from boredom in the library when Minseok sent out a text to their group chat.

“Kyungsoo, check your phone, this is an important text,” Sehun said, looking down and messaging back. Kyungsoo had taken to keeping their group chat on silent because Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Jongdae, and occasionally Jongin liked to spam or send pictures they had found on the internet. Once they got going, it could get a bit annoying, so he was now relying on Sehun to tell him what was important and what wasn’t when he was at work.

He pulled his phone out of his back pocket, grateful for the distraction from the damned card catalog project.

Minseok: Our werewolf friends are here. Can we have a meeting tonight?

Baekhyun: and can we get food? theyre hungry ^^

Sehun: Lets not make Kyungsoo pay this time then

Junmyeon: Yes, we can have a meeting. My house. Everyone who isn’t in college has to throw in some money for food, please.

“How many friends do they have, an army?” Kyungsoo asked, scrolling through the messages that had previously been sent. Those pictures of puppies Baekhyun had found were actually kind of cute...

Sehun snorted. “Knowing Baekhyun and Minseok, they probably eat like one. I think it’s five, though.”

Blinking, Kyungsoo looked at Sehun. “Oh, wow, that’s a lot. We’ll definitely have more of an advantage with them on our side.”

“Apparently they’re older and slightly more experienced at fighting, too,” Sehun said distractedly, slipping his phone back in his pocket and getting back to work.

“Neat.” Kyungsoo sadly did the same. These damn cards would be the death of him. And that wasn’t a thing that easily happened to vampires.

\--

Later that night at the meeting, Kyungsoo walked into Junmyeon’s house to an explosion of sound. Apparently the others were already here.

Upon entering the kitchen, Baekhyun bounded up to Kyungsoo. “Hey, let me introduce you to everyone! Guys, sit down so we can all learn names, okay?”

The group, now fourteen members strong, took a seat at the cramped table, and slowly quieted.

Baekhyun pointed to a guy with black hair who looked strangely similar to Jongin. In fact, the two of them were sitting together and already seemed to be getting along well. Chanyeol was looking vaguely nervous. “Over by Jongin is Taemin, and next to him with the lighter brow hair is Kibum.” Kibum gave a wave. He was the most put-together member of the new guys.

Shifting his attention to a tall man with silver hair, Baekhyun said, “The tall one is Minho, and he’s sitting next to Jonghyun, who happens to be really short. Feel free to make fun of him for it; we do it all the time.” Jonghyun happily gave Baekhyun the finger. “And then the one with reddish brown hair is Jinki, who’s the oldest.” Baekhyun then went around and introduced the nine of them, giving short introductions on what kind of being they were.

“Thank you all for coming here to help us,” Junmyeon said sincerely, going to shake Jinki’s hand, who happened to be sitting next to him. “We really need any assistance we can get, and I know you guys are busy.”

Jinki laughed in a surprisingly deep voice. “No, don’t worry about it. Baekhyun and Minseok have given us a hand on a few occasions, so we’re glad to return the favor.” Kyungsoo wondered what kind of things Baekhyun and Minseok had helped with. The group of five seemed very capable; they were relaxed and comfortable in their surroundings in a way that Kyungsoo rather envied.

Yixing pulled the warehouse plan back onto the table. “Right, so let’s get started, shall we?” There was a general mutter of assent. “Great. Can everyone see this? It’s a blueprint of where we’re going to attack, so the place this nutter is hiding.” He tapped a specific spot on the map. “Right here is the entrance. It’s in a small alleyway, and I have reason to believe there might be a guard.”

Kyungsoo chuckled under his breath. “You mean, there’s probably a guard because I went in there, had a little fight, then ran like a bitch knowing the location of their base?”

“Yep, that’s pretty much what I was thinking. I don’t blame you, or anything, it’s good that you found it. Anyway, we’re going to split into two groups and then come in from each side, and hopefully take out whoever is guarding the door. After that, we’ll have whoever can fight enter and do a little clean up.”

Here, Junmyeon took over. “Once we’ve got a viable path, we want everyone who is going to be throwing the fire bombs to come in and cause a distraction. Meanwhile, Yixing and I will sneak in and do the best we can to get to the necromancer. Sehun will join us to help with the setup, because there are some things we’re going to need to draw on the floor and that tends to take a bit of time. We’ll need someone to cover for us. Chanyeol, do you think you can do that?”

“What kind of cover?” Chanyeol asked cautiously. “I can’t really defend against any attacks from this necromancer guy if he’s using magic.”

Junmyeon shook his head. “I’ll put up a barrier, but we need someone to protect us from physical attacks. Jongin said you can do some kind of ring of fire, right?”

Chanyeol nodded. “Yeah, I can make a circle of fire around your work space, then throw fireballs at anyone who gets too close. Is that what you’ll need?”

“Pretty much,” Yixing reasoned. “As long as nothing physical attacks us, we should be okay. Then all we have to do is work our magic, and this necromancer guy should be dead. Or, I hope he’ll be dead. I’m not totally sure this is going to work.”

Junmyeon sighed. “It’ll work fine, don’t get everyone’s spirits down.”

“I was being realistic,” Yixing laughed, “I’m never certain about anything I do.”

“Well, anyway,” Junmyeon said, a little exasperated, “That’s the plan. Honestly, if you’re unsure of what to do, fight something that looks dangerous and avoid getting killed yourself.”

“Sounds good to me,” Minseok said, stretching. The rest of the wolves agreed with him.

“Fighting is what we’re good at,” said a proud-looking Minho. “We’ll be fine on that front.”

Sehun spoke up. “We’ve planned to stage our attack this upcoming Friday night, so clear your schedules if necessary. Everyone gather here at Junmyeon’s house at around 9pm, and try to be sneaky about it. If there’s anyone watching us, we don’t want them to know that we’re planning to attack. Once we’re here, we’ll drive over to the park near the warehouse, and then walk on over. Anyone have any questions?”

Jongin raised his hand. “Are we going to get food?”

“No, we don’t really have time for that, so eat before you come if you can. Especially you, Kyungsoo,” Junmyeon reminded him.

“Don’t worry, I know,” Kyungsoo said, nearly rolling his eyes. Jongdae tapped him on the thigh, and made a gesture towards his neck under the table. Oh, yeah, that would probably be a good idea... He would just have to make sure he didn’t take too much, or Jongdae would be too weak to fight. Maybe he’d take some blood the night before, and then keep drinking the stuff in cartons all through the afternoon on Friday. That should work.

“Right, then we’re done here. If anyone wants to do some more training, feel free,” Junmyeon finished. The group all got to their feet, a few of them going over to study the blueprint in more detail.

Baekhyun sidled up to Kyungsoo. “Hey, so you know how you’ve gotten pretty good at fighting both Minseok and I?” he asked. The three of them had been working on various techniques, and Kyungsoo had indeed become proficient in at least defending himself. “Want to try seven?”

Kyungsoo groaned. “Are you serious?”

\--

Friday approached faster than Kyungsoo would have liked it to. He would have preferred to work with the wolf pack for a few more days before jumping into this fight, but he would take what he could get. Most of the practice had consisted of him running for his life, occasionally getting a few blows in. Seven wolves contained in a small area provided quite the set of enemies, and even Kyungsoo could hardly do anything about it. The unfortunate thing was that the conditions of that fight would likely be similar to the conditions of the one he would be participating in in about three hours.

He, Sehun, and Jongdae were still at the library, and Jongdae was bouncing with nervous energy.

“Kyungsoo, what if something comes at me? What do I do?” he said, pacing.

Kyungsoo was taking his feelings out on the damn card catalog. This job had been rather nice before the project had started. They were only halfway through, too, dammit. Which, admittedly, was a decent amount of progress for a few people that weren’t really supposed to be doing this. Kyungsoo deeply regretted mentioning it to his boss. “Jongdae, relax. Go play one of the games on your laptop,” he said, sighing, “If something comes at you, run, but don’t worry, I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

Sehun tapped his shoulder, and when Kyungsoo turned, he was fluttering his eyelashes. “Kyungsoo, will you be keeping an eye on your favorite coworker and best friend, too?” Kyungsoo took the opportunity to pinch him, causing a yelp.

“If I can help it, none of you will get hurt. Relax, and focus on keeping your wits about you, and everything will be fine. If all else fails, we pull back, and just have Chanyeol burn the whole place down.”

Jongdae threw up his hands. “Oh, right, that’s very reassuring,” he snapped, “What if we can’t do that? What if they’re too strong, and kill us all?” Clearly Jongdae was freaking out, so Kyungsoo paused in his work and walked over to Jongdae, and took him squarely by the shoulders.

“I’ve lived for 327 years now, and I’ve been on my own against over a hundred other vampires. I’ve fought hordes of zombies alone, ran for my life across continents, and barely escaped death more times than I want to think about. If I can’t get all of you through this alive, what kind of vampire would I be? As long as I’m present, we’ll get out of this in one piece. I’m good at surviving, have been for 303 years.”

Jongdae frowned. “303? You just said you were 327.”

Kyungsoo released Jongdae’s shoulders and chuckled. “Well, I technically died when I was 24, because vampires aren’t exactly alive. We’re considered to be undead.”

Jongdae thought about this for a few seconds. “So technically, you mean I’m dating a dead body. Wait, that’s so messed up,” he said, looking taken aback.

“Well, technically, I’m not quite dead, I was just dead at one point, and now I’m not? I fulfill the same requirements of life as a virus, actually, and there’s a rather large debate as to whether viruses are alive or not. So it depends on how you look at it,” Kyungsoo explained. He had looked up the information one day when he was curious.

Jongdae sat down on the table behind him. “Are you technically a parasite or something?”

Kyungsoo needed to think about that one. Did his method of reproduction include using a living being as a host? “I think so, yeah. If you want to use that word, you can. I’d prefer to consider myself something else, but parasite would be an adequate definition. I’ve never reproduced, though, so there’s that. And I might have had children before I became a vampire, but if so, they’re long dead now, so I have no way of knowing.”

“Wait, you could have great-great-great grandchildren or something?” Jongdae looked like his mind was being blown. Kyungsoo would probably have to start writing an autobiography or something, just start and add to it every year if he did something interesting. That was a good project to start when he had some free time.

“Seeing as the age of marriage was lower back then than it is now, it’s totally possible,” Sehun cut in, waltzing over to give his opinion. “I’ve actually looked into the time period Kyungsoo was supposedly born in. He definitely could have had children.”

“I don’t remember any of that, though.” Kyungsoo thought it was an appropriate time to remind them. “When I reawakened as a vampire, all I knew was my name and my age, because they had been written on my arm in ink. Well, I had a little general knowledge, like how to feed myself. I wasn’t a child,” he corrected himself, “but that was it. The personality you see today was formed totally from my experience since the day I opened my eyes as a vampire.”

Jongdae whistled softly. “I didn’t think of it like that... Wait, you said you were up against 100 other vampires at once? How the hell did you stay alive?”

“For one, everyone was trying to kill each other. My maker created a whole bunch of us, then locked us in some sort of enclosure in the woods, and told us only ten could live. I climbed a tree, and whenever someone came to attack me, I just jumped down and ran like hell. I got lucky, to be honest.”

“Wait, what the fuck? Who would do something like that?” Jongdae asked, now fully engaged in what Kyungsoo was saying. Good, that was his goal, to distract Jongdae so he wouldn’t freak out.

Kyungsoo shrugged. “He wanted people who would be useful to him, so that was his method of weeding out the weak. It only happened a few times, as far as I remember.”

Even Sehun looked a little surprised. He had never asked questions about that far into Kyungsoo’s past before, so this was new information to him as well.

“Kyungsoo, you should write all of this down so I can read it,” Sehun said, sounding very interested. “I’d love to know every personal detail of your fascinating life.”

“Well, if you put it like that, I won’t.” He was still going to do it anyway. Maybe some stuff would get edited out, though. The world didn’t need to know the precise details of San Francisco.

Jongdae nodded in agreement. “Can you do that? I’d really like to read it. I could summarize my life in less than fifty pages, but yours sounds like it could fill books, and I want to know more about you.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll start after this necromancer bullshit. It’ll take me a while, mind you, but I’ll do it.”

Dropping his head into his hands, Jongdae suddenly groaned. “Dammit, why did you have to remind me about that? No matter what you say, I’m still going to be nervous. I’m not accustomed to violence and supernatural things that could kill me before I blink like you guys are. I knew this stuff existed, but I didn’t really understand the extent of it until we started working on this.”

Sehun shrugged. “Yeah, I mean that did take some getting used to. I knew about all of the legends from my parents, but as far as I know, they don’t have any supernatural friends, so when I met Junmyeon, imagine my surprise.”

Kyungsoo chuckled. “And you were quite shocked when I told you I was a vampire. Jongdae, you should have seen the look on his face.”

“Can you describe it?” Jongdae asked eagerly. Sehun punched him, but it had nothing on Kyungsoo’s punches, so he only winced and focused back on Kyungsoo.

“He looked constipated and excited at the same time. You know that face he makes when he’s angry? Like that, but more surprise,” Kyungsoo snickered.

“If you say anything else, Kyungsoo,” Sehun warned, “I’m going to air some of the dirty laundry you’ve spilled to me. I’ll tell him about the one time in New Orleans.”

Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes. “We don’t talk about that. Why don’t we all get back to work, hmm?” he said, and walked back over to his workstation. It wasn’t really that bad, but he would prefer Jongdae be kept in the dark about that one for a while.

In the background he could hear Jongdae frantically whispering to Sehun, who continued to deny him. One day. At least it provided a good distraction.


	6. Chapter 6

At 8pm, when Kyungsoo and Sehun got off work, the two of them plus Jongdae all got in Kyungsoo’s car to head over to Junmyeon’s. Kyungsoo parked a few blocks away, and they walked from there.

Kyungsoo wasn’t really sure how sneaky they were being, but now no one could say they didn’t try.

Besides Yixing, their group of three were the first people to arrive. After opening the door, Junmyeon directed them to the kitchen.

“How are you guys feeling about tonight?” he asked, offering them drinks from the fridge. Kyungsoo accepted the carton of blood that Junmyeon threw at him, and he pushed the straw in and took a sip. He hadn’t been this satisfied in a while, but he knew he would need it.

“Nervous,” Jongdae admitted, wringing his hands. Kyungsoo ran a palm up a down his back comfortingly a few times. Jongdae had been right; there was only so much that Kyungsoo could do to calm his nerves. Kyungsoo’s own casualness with the situation came from years (so, so many years) of experience, and that wasn’t something that Jongdae could gain in a few months.

“Did you have anything to eat?” Junmyeon inquired, tapping a container of what looked like leftovers. “It’s important to have some fuel in your stomach, and while I know I said I wasn’t going to try and feed all of you, it’s better if you eat.”

Jongdae nodded. “Sehun and Kyungsoo forced me to eat. Well, Kyungsoo mentioned it and Sehun was the one who gave me dinner and tried to force it down my throat.” Kyungsoo had actually tried his hand at cooking a couple weeks ago. He followed some tutorial on the internet, and his result had looked okay, so he assumed he wasn’t too bad. However, he wasn’t about to make Jongdae eat his experiments so far.

“That’s good. Why don’t you have a seat until everyone else gets here? You guys are early, so it might be a while,” Junmyeon suggested.

Kyungsoo plopped down next to Yixing, who was intently peeling some sort of bark off a bunch of twigs. He paused in his drinking. “Yixing, what are you doing, out of curiosity?”

Yixing wiped off his knife and looked up. “One of the spells that we’re going to use tonight requires willow bark, and it’ll work better if the bark is fresh,” he explained. “We’re not trying to burn it, we need to make into a paste of sorts, so we don’t want it to be dried. I picked this up on my way over.”

Making a vague noise of agreement, Kyungsoo went back to drinking. Yep, he was definitely asking Junmyeon to teach him some wizardry, or at least a good portion of the theory behind it. He had absolutely no idea what Yixing was talking about. Perhaps he should use this time spent being a librarian to catch up on his general knowledge. He had studied some for brief periods of time in the past, but it would be good to continue that. Anyway. Tonight was supposed to be focused on fighting.

There was a knock on the door, and Sehun sprang up to answer it, telling Junmyeon to keep preparing. Junmyeon was working on enchanting the rest of their fire bombs (each in the form of a ball of parchment that had been inscribed with a complex diagram and weighted with a few rocks), whispering and waving his fingers over them until they had a slight orange glow. Perhaps they could even market these somehow... Yixing had figured out a way to create a delay where the user would rip a part of the paper containing a special part of the diagram, throw the ball, and the bomb would explode upon impact. Ingenious, really. Kyungsoo had a lot of respect for that man, and Junmyeon as well, who had come up with the spell.

Chanyeol and Jongin walked into Junmyeon’s kitchen, followed by Sehun, Minseok, Baekhyun and the other wolves, causing Junmyeon to let out an exasperated sigh. “I thought I told you guys to come separately,” he complained, getting up to offer them a drink.

Chanyeol snickered. “We came from the opposite directions, if it helps at all?”

“It’s 9 pm, though, and that’s when you told us to get here,” Jongin reminded him, sliding into the seat next to Jongdae, who traded a fist bump with him.

Baekhyun sat down on Yixing’s other side. “Hey, why does Kyungsoo get a meal?” he whined, and pawed at Junmyeon’s arm from his seat.

“Because it’s a drink? I offered you a drink, too,” Junmyeon said absently, going over a checklist he had sitting on the table. He went into his living room and returned with a sturdy-looking bag. “Yixing, that looks like enough bark, let’s get it in the bag and get moving. I’d prefer to do this sooner rather than later, because the more we put it off the more worried I get.”

“Yeah, I made a little extra just in case.” Yixing tossed him a bag of bark paste, and Junmyeon stuffed it into the larger bag.

Minseok hooted. “Alright, let’s get this party started!” He led the wolves out the door, and the rest of them followed. Baekhyun and Minseok were the proud owners of a rather large van, and the wolves were all to drive to the location inside it. Junmyeon, Chanyeol, and Jongin all got in Yixing’s car, and Kyungsoo took Sehun and Jongdae in his.

The drive over to the warehouse was mostly silent at first, minus a few comments Kyungsoo made about the weather. Eventually the silence got to him, and he turned on his radio.

This finally got Jongdae to talk. “We still haven’t seen this necromancer guy, have we?”

Sehun spoke up from the back seat, where he was texting someone Kyungsoo didn’t know. Probably one of his human friends (he did actually have a few of those). “No, we haven’t, though I promise you that whatever Junmyeon and Yixing have will be plenty to defeat him. It’s a pretty strong spell; the diagram I have to draw is rather intricate.”

Kyungsoo made a noise. “I won’t lie to you, that’s the one guy I’m afraid of meeting tonight. I can fight zombies, vampires, werewolves, and the occasional weak demon, but necromancers? I think I’ve only met one in passing before. They’re not very common, and usually not very nice people.”

“Great, someone even Kyungsoo is scared of,” Jongdae groaned, “I thought you were fearless, minus a couple of things.”

“Kyungsoo has a good point, though,” Sehun argued, “This guy is really powerful, and there’s no good way to attack him. We’re not even trying to kill him, just to bind him. To kill him we’d need to actually fight him, and Junmyeon and Yixing aren’t exactly the fighting type.”

“That makes a little more sense,” Jongdae admitted, bouncing his leg rapidly. “Doesn’t make me any less nervous, though.”

“I doubt there’s much that could fix that for any of us,” Kyungsoo said dryly.

They pulled into the parking lot, where the others were already waiting. The werewolves were doing some kind of stretching routine, and most of them were already shirtless, ready to transform.

Kyungsoo got out of the car and walked over, the other two following in his stead.

Junmyeon got everyone’s attention. “Sehun, Jongdae, here are your fire bombs. You guys are coming with me, Yixing, and a few of the werewolves, and we’re going to go around the warehouse and meet the others who are going to come from the train track side. Is everyone good to go?” There was a chorus of agreement. “Then let’s stop wasting time, and get this over with.”

Kyungsoo led his group (with Kibum, Jinki, and Jonghyun from the wolves) across the train tracks and along the front of the warehouse. He could already smell the typical zombie decay, and it seemed to have multiplied since he was last here. Damn. At least they had Chanyeol this time, who could just burn the shit out of all those damned zombies.

They walked as quietly as they could along the length, meeting no one on their way. When they approached the end of the wall, Kyungsoo held a hand up and everyone stopped. “Are the others in position on the other side?” he asked quietly. Sehun held up his phone and nodded in confirmation, and Kyungsoo nodded back. “Alright, if you guys could transform,” he directed at the wolves, “We’re going to turn the corner in a minute. From what I can smell, there’s at least one wolf outside the door, but there may be a vampire or two. Let me take care of the vampire, and you guys take the wolf. Got it?” As he saw no dissent, Kyungsoo turned around and carefully peered around the corner. Shit. Two wolves and a vampire. “Just kidding,” he said and informed their party of this new information.

“I texted that to Jongin,” Sehun whispered, and then tapped the time on his phone. They were set to attack once the minute changed... and now. Kyungsoo and the wolves dashed around the corner, meeting up with Baekhyun, Minseok, Taemin, and Minho from the other side. Junmyeon had made the werewolves on their side put white armbands around all of their limbs so they could tell who was on whose side once they transformed, and the white flashed in the dark. The vampire and other werewolves were apparently unable to smell, because Kyungsoo and the rest took them totally by surprise.

Kyungsoo hurtled himself at the vampire, who looked like he was fifteen or something. That was a pity, for a person to be killed so young, but now was not the time for remorse. It took Kyungsoo less than thirty seconds to have the vampire pinned to the ground. Damn. He really didn’t want to kill this one, but the poor kid looked like he had been gone mentally for years, with deep eye bags and haunted look in his eyes. Kyungsoo spared no time in ripping his heart out, claws sinking easily into the boy’s chest.

It took a little longer for the seven werewolves to suppress their two enemies, especially since they were more evenly matched. Kyungsoo helped out a little by darting in and slicing a few tendons on one wolf, but for the most part backed away. This was not his fight.

Finally, they managed to pin down the other two and dispose of them with a few quick bites. Kyungsoo motioned for the others to come out. Hopefully they hadn’t made too much noise. As everyone else jogged towards the entrance, Kyungsoo took stock of the building. The door had been repaired, albeit rather sloppily, and it would take only a few kicks for Kyungsoo to get it down. The window he had come in the other night, however, was shut, and Kyungsoo had no desire to get glass stuck in his skin. It wouldn’t really injure him, but it would be damn inconvenient, and probably hurt, too. So they were stuck with the door. Not ideal, but Kyungsoo could work with that.

“Right,” he said, and turned back to the group, “One of you wolves stay back with the rest to protect them. Everyone else who’s part of the fighting group, let’s go in.” Directed at Junmyeon, Kyungsoo added, “Only enter when you think you’ll have a safe passage. Ready?”

Without waiting for an answer, Kyungsoo kicked down the door with three blows, and stepped inside, walking down the ramp to the floor, which was sunken into the ground a good couple of meters. He hadn’t noticed that the first time he had been here, but that would explain why he had fallen harder than he had expected. The warehouse was as dark as it had been last time, and the zombies were still in a writhing mass on the floor, but maybe twice the amount Kyungsoo had seen last time. Shit. This was less than the number that the Salem witches had set on him, but still quite a lot. Glancing around to check for vampires, Kyungsoo motioned behind him with one hand. “Chanyeol,” he called out softly, “Would you mind doing me a favor and letting them know we’re here?”

Chanyeol stepped forward, a slightly insane grin on his face. “No problem, just buy me food later.” Of course. Rolling his eyes, Kyungsoo shifted, allowing Chanyeol to step in front of him.

The red-haired man closed his own eyes, and seemed to have a brief conversation with himself, and then those beautiful red and orange flames ignited, never burning his clothes, but bringing destruction to everything around him. Chanyeol’s fire was so deadly, but probably the most breathtaking thing Kyungsoo had seen. It was almost like it had a life of its own, sometimes. Kyungsoo wondered...

Chanyeol brought his hands out in front of him, and the flames flowed from his core to his palms and outward, spiraling towards the mass of zombies who were beginning to notice them. The fire ate through their center, then spread outwards, catching and burning. Even Kyungsoo was beginning to feel the heat on his face.

Shouts rang through the warehouse, and werewolves and vampires alike poured out the doors on near the outside walls. Looking up, Kyungsoo spotted some running along the catwalks in the ceiling. In all, there were about fifteen vampires and maybe thirty wolves. At least, that was what Kyungsoo could see.

That was a lot. He was going to have his work cut out for him. Kyungsoo left Chanyeol with a thumbs up and darted away, running up the stairs to the catwalks where most of the vampires were located. If he could prevent them from getting down the stairs, that would help the others significantly, as they wouldn’t have a bunch of vampires to fight through. Up here, he could feel the heat rising, and he hurried along. There were steel beams everywhere, but the warehouse was old, and Kyungsoo was a little worried about the structural integrity of the place.

The first couple vampires were barreling down the catwalk towards him, and what luck, it was the two he had fought the first time he had been here.

“You again,” one of them snarled, and he leapt at Kyungsoo. This time, though, Kyungsoo was at nearly full power, and he easily blocked the vampire’s first blow. His current position and the narrowness of the catwalks allowed for only one enemy to come to him at a time, which was lucky on his part and stupid on the part of the vampires.

Kyungsoo proceeded to sock the guy in the jaw. “Yep, me again,” he said calmly, and caught the guy’s fist. Idiot, this left Kyungsoo the space to swing around and kick him in the chest, which Kyungsoo did, and the vampire fell back onto his buddy. “You’re going to have to try a little harder, there.”

Obviously this pissed him off, so the vampire dove at him, claws out, but Kyungsoo saw him coming and leapt directly upwards, and landed on his back. Defending himself from blows from the second vampire with one arm, he used the other to dig his claws into the back of the first’s neck and pull, tearing off a significant piece of flesh. Fantastic, one down, fourteen-ish to go.

Kicking the body off the catwalks (he really hoped that it hadn’t hit anyone he knew), Kyungsoo decided that fighting them individually was going to be a little much. If they were weak, like that one had been, he was just going to go straight for the neck and throw them over the edge. Thanks to Jongdae’s blood, Kyungsoo might actually be able to survive the fall now, but a weak vampire with fresh blood probably wouldn’t, especially if wounded.

He exchanged blows with the second vampire, who seemed a bit angry that Kyungsoo had killed his companion. Well, after they had almost gotten Kyungsoo last time, he should be used to it. Their brief skirmish ended with Kyungsoo planting a foot on his chest and ripping off an arm. The vampire collapsed on the ground writhing in pain. He would live, but he wouldn’t be able to fight for a while, which was good enough.

The next was a female vampire dressed in cargo pants and a black t-shirt. This one would be more powerful than Danni. Those clothes meant business, and she proved it by immediately knocking Kyungsoo down, his head hitting the metal catwalk painfully. He’d been in that position before, of course, so it was little effort to shove a knee in between them and get her in the gut. Kyungsoo used that as a diversion to get a hand around her throat and throw her off, but she bounced back up, fists raised. Kyungsoo lifted an eyebrow. Oh, it was that kind of fight now, was it?

He risked a quick glance to the mess down below. Chanyeol had taken out over half the zombies with his flames, but they still had the werewolves to deal with. Their wolves were doing a good job of holding them at bay, but they couldn’t last forever. Junmyeon would have to try and find a clear path soon.

The vampire in front of him growled. “Don’t get distracted, now, you’re in the middle of a fight.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and put up his own fists. “Relax, some of us actually have friends we care about.” The woman seemed to take exception to that, and slashed at him, putting holes in the simple grey cotton shirt he was wearing. Which was fine; he expected to be throwing these clothes out afterwards, anyway. He was going to have to buy more, with all the fights he was getting into.

They each got a few more solid punches in. Kyungsoo could see that this wasn’t going anywhere, and he needed to get on with things. How could he... oh! Trip her, duh. Clearly she was assuming he played fair. But playing fair isn’t how you stay alive.

Kyungsoo danced backwards, and she came after him. Mistake on her part: Kyungsoo stuck his foot out and she tripped, allowing Kyungsoo to plant an elbow into the back of her neck with a sickening crack. Ow. That had really hurt his elbow. He kicked her off the side of the catwalk as well, and he could see the petrified expression on her face as she went down.

But there was no time to waste, because the next vampire was coming at him. Another teenager. This guy was fucking sick, because clearly these teenagers had been driven to insanity. The problem with creating a vampire out of someone who hadn’t fully developed yet was you got a weaker product because the transition to vampire was often too strong for a younger body to handle, and that usually led to abuse. This poor boy, like the one at the gate, had clearly suffered. Kyungsoo would have liked to save him, but sometimes they were just too far gone already. He dealt with it in two blows, breaking its neck quickly and cleanly. The body slumped to the ground. This necromancer bastard deserved to die for doing this to people. If Kyungsoo was given the opportunity, he was going to make sure this fucker died.

A popping noise and sudden burst of violet flame caught his eye. That must be the fire bombs, then. The strange combination of Junmyeon and Yixing’s magic must have caused the weird color. Not that Kyungsoo was complaining, because they were rather pretty.

There were no vampires coming towards him immediately, and he took a moment to grip the thin railing and look over the edge. Junmyeon, Yixing, and Sehun were jogging towards one of the inner doors, and Chanyeol was following them, doing his best to keep the wolves and zombies away with his fire. As Kyungsoo watched, a werewolf’s coat caught flames, and refused to go out even after he rolled on the ground. The wolf ran out the broken warehouse door, whining all the way. How the hell did Chanyeol do that?

Kyungsoo heard a noise, and turned. Walking confidently towards him was a large, burly vampire. Fuck, this guy looked strong. Maybe too strong for Kyungsoo to handle. He was definitely the underdog in this situation.

The vampire crouched, and with a flex of his legs, leapt at Kyungsoo, who ran forward and ducked, allowing the larger man to pass over him. If this guy got on top of him, he was screwed for sure.

Kyungsoo spun around just as the vampire hit the catwalk with a loud bang. When he moved, Kyungsoo noticed that his feet had left prints in the metal.

The guy rose slowly and turned, sinking easily into a fighting stance. “Cat got your tongue, pretty?” he taunted. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. This would be difficult, but he had been in worse situations.

“Nah, but that gives me a couple of good ideas,” Kyungsoo replied, doing the same. If he let this guy’s comments affect him, he was toast.

The vampire came at him, fists flying. Kyungsoo managed to block a few, but then of course fuck—

He was sent flying, and crashed into the catwalk. Managing to land on his feet a distance away from the other, Kyungsoo took stock of his body. No skin had been broken, but there would be some bruising and he would bet a significant amount of money that a few of his ribs were broken. Kyungsoo took a slight breath. Yup, that hurt. How the fuck was he going to kill this massive lump of muscle?

But there wasn’t much time to think, because he was approaching again. Kyungsoo couldn’t let another punch hit him, so it was time to play on his own strengths: running away. Not that he was going to run away from the fight, no; he was just going to dodge and evade. If he couldn’t play the strength game, he was going to play the tactical game.

As the vampire came towards him confidently, Kyungsoo jumped directly upwards, gripping onto a pipe, and swung himself up. He landed lightly on the narrow surface, and watched as the man lost his balance when his punch didn’t land. Kyungsoo then dropped down, one of his booted feet landing directly on the back of the man’s head, and used him to throw himself to another steel beam in the ceiling. Catching the top of the beam with his fingertips, he used his shoulder muscles to pull himself up.

Recovering, the burly vampire turned around to face him. The smile on his face made Kyungsoo feel disgusting. Here was a being that was truly evil. “Come on, pretty, why don’t you stop running and fight me like a real man?”

Kyungsoo sighed. “Gender is a social construct, you know. I don’t need anyone to tell me what being a man means. But right now, it means protecting the humans of this town, so by my definition, you aren’t a man. You’re a monster.” He shifted subtly on the steel beam, readying himself.

The vampire blinked at him. Clearly Kyungsoo’s words were going to take some processing. Kyungsoo grinned. “But so am I.”

He leapt off the beam with his claws out, smashing into the vampire. He immediately tried to get Kyungsoo off of him, but Kyungsoo was also stubborn as hell, so he clung on, claws stuck in his flesh. He pulled one hand out and brought it up to the man’s face. “I think I need to help you see that.” Kyungsoo sunk his claws into the vampire’s eyes, and pulled back, ripping them out. He screamed, and Kyungsoo let out an exhilarated laugh. He hadn’t lived over 300 years for nothing.

Now sightless, the vampire stumbled around, and by chance gripped onto the catwalk railing. Oh no. Not this. The vampire paused. “Pretty, if you thought I was going to give up like that, you were wrong,” he snarled, and tipped them over the edge.

Kyungsoo felt himself falling, falling, his vision flashing, then he slammed into the ground on his back, the bigger vampire landing on top of him. More ribs broke; his vision blurred. There was a brief scrabble, and he could feel the vampire’s hands closing around his neck. No... no, not now, he couldn’t die now, not to the hands of this one.

With gargantuan effort, Kyungsoo brought a leg up and kneed him as hard as he could in the groin. He’d have to thank Minseok again for saving his life with his tips on fighting bigger things. The vampire’s grip slackened as he let out a howl of pain, and this allowed Kyungsoo to bring his own hands up and pry them off his neck, then claw most of his face off. The man rolled off him snarling, so Kyungsoo dragged himself up and sprinted away. 

He surveyed the fighting going on. Junmyeon, Sehun, and Yixing had disappeared, and hopefully they were still alive and working on their binding spell. A wolf with white cuffs was struggling against a larger wolf, so Kyungsoo ran over there to give a helping hand, wheezing.

The enemy wolf was on top of the wolf on their side, trying to get his jaws around their wolf’s throat. Kyungsoo darted over, and aimed a scratch at the wolf’s eyes, managing to draw blood but not do any serious damage. He was weak from pain and his exhausting fight with the massive vampire, whom he had lost sight of, and his attacks were suffering because of it. In fact, he could probably just collapse right now, and sleep for a decade.

But he couldn’t. Kyungsoo’s friends were counting on him, so he doubled his efforts, managing to pull the wolf’s head away from the wolf from their group. This allowed the wolf to throw the larger off, and he got up and ducked behind Kyungsoo for a moment to recover, then ran against the enemy wolf again, snarling. Kyungsoo hoped that whoever that was didn’t get themselves killed. One of those paws looked like it could be broken.

Speaking of which, where was Jongdae?

He scanned the mass of writhing and fighting bodies, fire sparking up everywhere. The smoke from the flames made everything blurry, and it didn’t help that Kyungsoo felt like some large truck had run him over. He could feel himself weakening. It wasn’t anything life-threatening, but all blood in his body was going to repairing his wounds, something he had a lot of.

Okay, Jongdae, Jongdae... Kyungsoo skipped around the warehouse floor, smashing in the heads of zombies as he went. He avoided a burning piece of something, not wanting to stay around long enough to find out what it was.

“Kyungsoo!” a voice called out in desperation, “Give us a hand here will you?” Kyungsoo turned to see Minseok in his human form, blood all over his front, hands in fists as another white-cuffed wolf attempted to defend himself against a wolf with a black coat.

He ran over and leapt on top of the wolf’s back moving with it as it bucked, and sunk his claws into the back of its neck. Minseok changed back into a wolf, and together with his teammate, they attacked the wolf relentlessly, not giving him any chance to retaliate. Kyungsoo did his part from the wolf’s back by trying to get his claws deeper to his nervous system, because right now he was just in the muscle tissue, which hurt, but wasn’t debilitating.

Eventually the two managed to knock him out, and Kyungsoo withdrew his claws. He was about to keep looking when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eyes. There he was! Jongdae was up against a wall, a look of fear in his eyes. Kyungsoo followed Jongdae’s line of sight. There was a small group of zombies coming at him, and he had nothing in his hands. Dammit. Kyungsoo dropped what he was doing to run over there, bashing in the zombies’ heads just in time. But that short burst of movement had caused him quite a bit of pain.

Kyungsoo wiped at his mouth (the blood was probably his own), then looked up at Jongdae, trying to keep the emotion off his face. “Are you alright?” he asked, giving Jongdae a quick once-over. Jongdae nodded.

“I’m fine, thanks to you,” he breathed, running a hand through his hair and pulling. His hands were shaking slightly, Kyungsoo noted, and he looked frazzled, especially with the way he was messing with his hair. “What’s going on? Do you know?”

He shook his head, pain flaring up with each movement. “I don’t really know what’s happening, but I’m going to hope Junmyeon, Yixing, and Sehun are okay, seeing as Chanyeol is gone. With Junmyeon’s magic and Chanyeol’s firepower, they’re bound to be fine.” Kyungsoo wouldn’t be surprised if he had broken a bone in his spine with the way it hurt.

Jongdae looked a little more relieved. “That’s good, great, in fact.”

Suddenly there was a suspicious rumbling and the brick wall cutting the rest of the warehouse off from the room they were fighting in began to crack. A small hole formed, then the whole wall blew out. Bits of brick flew in every direction, and Kyungsoo leapt in front of Jongdae in attempts to protect him. He was hit with a rather large chunk of brick wall, ripping open the flesh on his arm and making him stumble back. Kyungsoo grunted, lungs too empty to make any other noise. A sickly-looking green mist poured out from the massive aperture that had just been created.

The fighting paused as everyone stopped to look at the hole. The smoke cleared, and in their sight was the necromancer with long billowing black robes and a staff with a human skull on the end. He was standing on some sort of platform, and was throwing spell after spell at a glowing bubble of light on the ground. That was probably where Junmyeon, Yixing, and Sehun were.

Walking forward, the necromancer began to create more and more powerful spells to throw at them. As Kyungsoo watched, a bit of steel beam came hurtling down to the floor and hit it with a loud clang. Was the roof going to collapse? Kyungsoo really didn’t want to find out.

He grabbed Jongdae by the arm and tugged him behind some rubble from the earlier explosion. The fear grew in his gut as he watched the guy. This was something he couldn’t fight, something against his physical attacks would have no effect. Normally he’d just run, but now he had something to protect. All he could do was stay here and hope that Junmyeon and the others would pull through, and try to protect Jongdae.

It was scary, knowing that if the necromancer won, that he would feel something bad. Kyungsoo had gone through a lot of that in the past, and he didn’t want it to happen again.

Jongdae shifted beside him. “What’s going on?” he hissed, trying to peek over the barrier between them and the fire and chaos. Kyungsoo pulled him back down, and strategically placed his arm over Jongdae’s neck in order to protect the vital area there. 

“They’re fighting, and there’s nothing we can do about it at the moment besides keep ourselves safe, so get down and stay down,” Kyungsoo said hurriedly, instinctively ducking as a chunk of rubble flew past them. He just hoped the others had enough sense to do the same. “Don’t do anything to draw attention to us. I want to walk out of here alive, and hopefully before the sun comes up.” His voice was crackly and choked up.

Jongdae sighed. “But you’re looking, and I want to know what’s happening.”

“I’m also a lot more resilient than you, and I can’t see anything because of all the smoke and fire. Just put up with me now and I’ll buy you food after or something,” Kyungsoo said hurriedly, and pulled Jongdae under him as another beam fell not far from where they were hiding. Jongdae struggled a bit, jostling Kyungsoo’s broken (but slowly healing) ribs, and he winced. Fuck, that was painful. The last time he’d felt this much pain had to be Salem and the zombies

There were a series of shouts, and violet smoke started pouring from the glowing bubble on the ground. It slowly filled the warehouse, and Kyungsoo soon found himself blinded by it. The smoke smelled like a combination of Junmyeon’s house and the strange musk that hung around Yixing, and maybe a bit like Sehun’s sweat with a hint of plain old fire. Maybe the spell was working, then.

Jongdae coughed under him. “What is this? I can’t see anything.”

“I’m not sure. Shh, I need to listen,” Kyungsoo said, wary of anyone who would try and attack them in the smoke. At least they had something on one side so he didn’t have to watch his back. Everything had gone silent, with the occasional crackle of fire or the creaking of the warehouse.

Half a minute later, the smoke began to clear, and Kyungsoo could make out indistinct shapes in the fog. Right. They had to move, this spot was no longer safe.

“We’re going. Hold on,” he instructed Jongdae. Kyungsoo threw him over his back with his good arm, stood up, and tore off through the fog. He avoided anything that looked solid, relying mostly on sound to make sure he didn’t hit a person or wall.

The smoke cleared ahead, and Kyungsoo slowed, lifting a complaining Jongdae back to the ground.

“What did you do that for? I can walk myself, you know.”

“Shut up! I don’t know what’s going on,” Kyungsoo hissed at him, and Jongdae quieted, mollified. He walked stealthily forward, footsteps making almost no sound.

Chanyeol popped out of the remaining fog with a wide grin on his face, scaring Kyungsoo half to death. Although, he was already half dead, so that expression didn’t exactly work. Kyungsoo would have to work on his metaphors later.

“Dammit, Chanyeol, how the hell did you sneak up on me? And what’s going on?” he whispered frantically.

Chanyeol giggled quietly. “Don’t worry about whispering, we sealed the guy. Come over here,” he gestured, and Kyungsoo and Jongdae followed him over to the blackened circle where Junmyeon, Yixing, and Sehun were crowded around something.

Junmyeon looked up at the sound of their footsteps. “Come over here; we’re not sure what to do with it.”

Their circle widened, and the two of them joined. Kyungsoo looked down to find a decidedly green toad hopping around and... Glaring at them?

Jongdae voiced Kyungsoo’s inner question. “Okay, great, toad, but why?”

“The necromancer is the toad,” Yixing explained, “This wasn’t supposed to happen, but when we sealed the necromancer, he turned into this toad.”

Junmyeon shrugged, looking sheepish, “Whoops?”

Oh, for the love of... “Are you guys serious? That toad right there is the necromancer?” Kyungsoo asked, fixing Junmyeon with his best glare.

“Yep, that’s definitely him. I’ve never seen a toad with so much malice.” Sehun attempted to pet the toad, and it tried to bite him.

Kyungsoo took a moment to process the situation. “Okay, so if someone kills that toad, will the necromancer escape his binding?”

“I don’t think so. If we had bound the necromancer inside of an outside toad’s body, we would have to be careful, but since this is the actual necromancer, just in useless toad form, he would just die.”

“Great.” Kyungsoo brought the heel of his boot down on the toad’s skull, crushing it and killing him in an instant.

Chanyeol leapt back with a yelp, and the others had a similar reaction. “Kyungsoo?” he yelled, the tips of his hair igniting in his alarm.

“You didn’t have to kill him,” Junmyeon admonished, looking a little shaky.

Kyungsoo shook his head. “I don’t think you guys understand. I had to kill him, because you guys wouldn’t do it. Junmyeon would have ended up keeping him in a tank in his house, and the thing is, as long as he’s alive, there’s the possibility of him breaking loose of this form and returning to terrorize us again. Yes, I killed an innocent creature, but that creature has killed countless humans, and I’m willing to take the blame in order to prevent that from happening again.”

Yixing was the first to go along with Kyungsoo’s idea. “I don’t necessarily like your solution, but I admit that it was probably the easiest way to go.” The others reluctantly agreed.

“Did you have to do it like that, though?” Junmyeon complained, as they walked from the circle to the rest of the warehouse, which was nearly cleared of smoke now.

“Yep. I didn’t want you guys to spend time debating over it,” Kyungsoo said. Now that the necromancer was dead, all of the zombies he had been controlling were just corpses on the ground, and Chanyeol had taken it upon himself to burn them, albeit with a wrinkled nose. Kyungsoo patted him on the back as they walked by. “Thanks for all your hard work, Chanyeol.”

He looked up from his work to toss Kyungsoo a tired grin. “As long as you buy me food after,” he said, causing Kyungsoo to snort.

“As long as you don’t eat me dry.”

They found the wolves in a circle around Jongin, who was looking slightly confused. Minseok transformed upon seeing them.

“What happened? We were fighting, and losing, so we decided to just protect Jongin the best we could, but then smoke filled the room, and everyone fucking ran. I don’t understand,” he said running a hand through his disheveled hair.

Junmyeon offered an answer. “We killed the necromancer, and because he was controlling the zombies, they all dropped. I’m not sure about everything else.”

“They probably realized they were on the losing side, and figured it was probably better to split, just in case we decided to round them all up afterwards.” Kyungsoo nudged the body of a dead werewolf with his toe. The wolves had actually tried to stun rather than kill, probably because they were more hesitant to end lives than he was. He applauded them for their morality, but Kyungsoo would continue to do what he had to in order to survive. “Which is actually a good thing, because if they had stayed banded together, they probably would have been able to defeat us. Ironic, isn’t it?”

Jongdae shook his head slowly. “Crazy. Is everyone alright, by the way?”

The rest of the wolves, realizing that the danger was gone, transformed as well. Jinki spoke for his pack.

“We have a couple broken ribs here and there, Jonghyun broke an arm, there are a lot of bruises and scratches, but that’s it for us.”

Minseok was leaning on Baekhyun, blood oozing out of deep lacerations all over his body. “I’ve lost a lot of blood, and Baekhyun has at the least a sprained wrist. Jongin is alright.”

“Chanyeol managed to keep all of us safe,” Sehun reported. “I think I burnt myself on something, but other than that we’re fine.

“Great! Kyungsoo protected me, so unless he’s hurt, we all made it out alright.” Jongdae said. Kyungsoo remained silent. Jongdae looked over at him. “Um. Are you hurt?”

Kyungsoo did his best to repress a cough that was trying to work its way out. Coughing would not help his ribs at this point. “I may have fallen off the catwalks and had a very heavy vampire land on top of me, breaking most of my ribs. Or I may not have, and I could be perfectly fine. But let’s not worry about me, because with a little blood, I’ll heal up fine.” He did his best to give a sunny smile.

Jongdae gave him a dead-eyed glare. “Are you being serious right now?” He walked over to Kyungsoo and yanked the hem of his shirt up, exposing his chest. Kyungsoo looked down. Okay, that seemed worse than it actually was. He would be fine.

“There are literally indents in your chest! How can you say you’re fine, and how the hell did you manage to protect me like this?” Jongdae yelped, letting his shirt fall back down.

Kyungsoo shrugged. “I’ve had worse. There was that one time in the mountains of Tibet where I was ambushed and spent about a week lying in the same spot just healing. If I can walk, I’ll be fine.”

Baekhyun shook his head. “Damn, and I thought werewolves were powerful. I’d be dead if that happened to me.”

“Problem is, I did almost die, actually. That big bastard had his hands around my neck, and it was lucky that he forgot to pin my legs down, otherwise I would have been toast. Even I can’t survive getting my neck ripped out.” This whole necromancer business had added maybe another three times to his I-almost-died count. Which was a very impressive number, actually.

Baekhyun gave a whistle. “Sometimes I wish I was as resilient as you. I get cut up all the time.”

Kyungsoo laughed, and then winced, doubling over in pain. Luckily he had Saturday and Sunday to heal up, because if he had to work tomorrow, it might have been a little difficult. “You don’t want this, trust me. Because the stronger you are, the more people want to kill you.”

Chanyeol walked over, finished burning all the zombies. “You got that right. Before I awakened my flame, I never got into any trouble, but now? I have things coming at me all the time.” He shook his head ruefully. “Power comes with a price, huh?”

“Never have there been truer words,” Junmyeon sighed, rubbing his brow with one hand on his hip. “Now, let’s all go back to my place, order some food, then you can all sleep over so we can get everyone healed.”

“That sounds like a good--”

There was a rumbling noise from above, and Kyungsoo looked up. Shit. The heat had weakened the old ceiling, and they had to get out of here, now.

“Everyone, RUN!” he yelled, hoping they would be smart enough to run to the door. He threw Jongdae and Sehun over either shoulder, and sprinted with one hand on either of their backs towards the door. Kyungsoo could hear stuff falling to the ground, and there was shouting from behind him. Nothing he could do now but run. He would bet a considerable amount of money that the heat from Chanyeol’s latest fires had weakened the ceiling just enough to push it over the edge.

Kyungsoo burst out into the cool night air, not stopping at the alley, and continuing over to the train tracks. Here, he carefully set Jongdae and Sehun down, dusting his hands as the others slowly joined them.

“Are you both okay?”

“Fine, fine,” Sehun said, looking stunned, “What about you? You look pretty awful, like the most awful I’ve ever seen you.”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “I’m fine. I do need to heal, but healing can wait until everyone is safe.”

He did a quick headcount of the group that had formed. There were missing two... ah, there, two more wolves joined. Okay, now they had everyone.

“Anyone hurt?” he called out. “I had a feeling something was going to break, but I didn’t think the whole ceiling would cave in.” And from what he could tell, the ceiling had indeed caved in, the top of the building nearly gone.

“We all managed to get out in time before the collapse,” Chanyeol reported, moving to cling to Jongin. “I put out the fires, but I doubt we’ll be able to get back in there safely.”

Kyungsoo was proud of how responsible the past few months had made Chanyeol. He had really progressed in control of his fire, too. They’d have to keep up that work. “Good. Shall we head back to Junmyeon’s now, then?”

There was an overall exhausted noise of assent, so Kyungsoo motioned to Jongdae and Sehun, and they all walked towards the park, getting into their respective cars.

Jongdae stopped Kyungsoo before he could get in. “Wait, do you want some of my blood now?”

“Wait, you’ve been giving him blood?” Sehun asked, intrigued.

Kyungsoo nodded. “I wouldn’t have been able to survive that fall without it. It’s also how I’ve been able to fight all of those more powerful vampires. I’ll stop after this, but there was no getting around it. All the other times I’ve fought large groups, I’ve had fresh blood to help me, and I needed that this time.”

Sehun shrugged. “Fair enough. I thought you didn’t do that anymore, though.”

“Jongdae somehow managed to convince me, and I had to admit that he was right. Now get in the car so I can take his blood, then we can go.”

“Why...?”

“Don’t ask questions, I’m hungry.”

Sehun threw his hands up, but slipped into the back of the car. Kyungsoo sent him one last glare, then pinned Jongdae to the door of the passenger side and exposed his neck, biting down quickly and taking only a little. He licked Jongdae’s neck to seal it as per usual, then supporting him, he opened the car door and deposited a dazed Jongdae into the seat. Kyungsoo got into his side, and started the car.

“So what’s it like to have your blood sucked?” Sehun immediately asked Jongdae, leaning forward to stick his head in the gap between their seats.

Jongdae shook his head a few times to clear it. “Um. I think it’s different for everyone? It’s kind of like giving blood at a donation center, to be honest.” Kyungsoo was laughing internally. Jongdae was clearly struggling to hide his sexual arousal from Sehun.

“Kyungsoo, would you suck my blood if I asked nicely enough?”

“Why in hell would you want me to do that?”

Sehun snorted. “Obviously so I can document the effects. There’s not a lot of information about that, you know.”

Kyungsoo nearly let his head hit the steering wheel. “I’m not doing that. It’s a fairly personal situation, idiot.”

“I thought we were friends, come on, Kyungsoo, do it for science.”

“No.”

“I’ll tell Jongdae about--”

“Fine, but only once, and just a little,” Kyungsoo relented. Was this kid serious? Mother fucker, he needed more dirt on Sehun.

“But I’ll need multiple trials, and--”

“We’ll discuss this later. For now, shut the fuck up and let me drive.”

\--

Bellies full of pizza, they spread out over Junmyeon’s house, draping themselves over any surface available for sleeping. Kyungsoo was still wide awake, however.

He shifted his position on the floor. One of his arms was serving as Jongdae’s pillow, but the rest of him was free, so he was lying as still as possible and in the best position for his ribs to heal. Kyungsoo could feel them starting to knit themselves together and correct their positioning with the help of Jongdae’s blood. It didn’t hurt as long as he remained still; it just itched.

But Kyungsoo had more self-control than that. He stayed there, looking up at Junmyeon’s ceiling, listening to his friends’ soft breathing around him. They were still young, and yet they had already seen violence. Kyungsoo hoped they wouldn’t become jaded, and that they kept their current attitudes about death. Aside from a few of the wolves, none of them had killed something living, just zombies. And Kyungsoo wanted to keep it that way. He was already in too deep, but them? Kyungsoo had something he wanted to protect.

He turned his head to look over at a slumbering Jongdae. Jongdae’s dark eyelashes were a stark contrast against his skin, and he looked peaceful and benign in sleep. This had changed Jongdae. Kyungsoo just hoped it wasn’t too much.

And as for Kyungsoo? Maybe he’d learned a little more about himself. Maybe he could trust others, and not always have to rely on his own meager power.

Kyungsoo shut his eyes. He’d try and sleep for a couple of hours.

\--

The morning saw Kyungsoo and Jongdae up first, and doing their best to make breakfast.

“You know, I didn’t think all this would happen when I was first attacked by those zombies,” Jongdae said, breaking the silence.

Kyungsoo let out a rueful laugh. “Neither did I. At least it only took a few months, and not years.”

“Hey, that may seem like a short period of time for you, but it’s a lot for me,” Jongdae protested, pausing in his chopping. Unlike Kyungsoo, Jongdae could actually cook, or at least was good enough to keep himself fed and healthy.

“It was long enough to be annoying, how about that.”

“Fair.”

They were quiet again for a few minutes, busy working. Kyungsoo decided to bring up something that had been on his mind.

“Now that the fight is over, do you still want to date me? I know we kind of jumped into things, but I... I’m not really sure how we stand.”

Jongdae looked over at him with an eyebrow raised. “Do you think I would have started this, and worked so hard to keep it, if I didn’t mean it?”

Okay, he had a point. “Well, no, but I just don’t know what you want now.”

Jongdae crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. “What do you want, Kyungsoo?” he asked, fixing Kyungsoo with an even gaze, unblinking and seemingly unjudging.

Kyungsoo looked down at his hands, and then back up to Jongdae. “I want to be with you,” he said honestly. “I don’t really know what’s going to happen in the future a week or a month from now, but I think I want you to be there. If that’s what you want, of course.” It had taken him a lot of thinking to get there, but Kyungsoo was ready to go with the flow and stop thinking so hard.

Jongdae smiled and wrapped an arm around his waist. “I have no opposition to that plan, so it looks like we’re good to go. So, boyfriend, shall we go to my apartment after breakfast and pay a visit to my bed?”

Kyungsoo lifted his eyebrows briefly. “Are you implying something, Jongdae Kim?”

“Maybe I am, Kyungsoo Do.” Jongdae released him with a quick kiss, and got back to work, humming some jazz song that was on Kyungsoo’s favorite tape. Kyungsoo had no complaints as of now. He got back to work.

Chanyeol wandered into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes. “Wait, are you guys making breakfast?” he asked, suddenly awake.

“Trying, at least,” Jongdae said, and turned on the stove. “You’re okay making the eggs, right Kyungsoo?”

Kyungsoo had definitely studied up on eggs. “Yeah, I think I can do that.” He got busy cracking the eggs and whisking them.

The rest of the group filed into the kitchen at the smell of bacon.

Junmyeon stretched, twisting his neck to work out some of the kinks. Sehun was hanging off him. “Kyungsoo, I didn’t know you could cook.”

“I can’t, not really, but I’ve been learning.”

Sehun side-eyed him. “Okay, that sounds like a bad idea, but okay.”

Kyungsoo finished his batch of eggs and slid them onto a plate. Jongdae slyly picked up a fork, and popped some into his mouth.

Junmyeon clapped his hands, getting everyone’s attention. The sound that had been swelling died down. “I’d like to thank all of you for helping me do this. Without all of you, the people of this town wouldn’t be safe, and as that is my biggest goal by being in charge of this area, it was critical that we seek to protect the town. If any of you ever need my help, I’ll be certainly willing to offer it.”

Everyone let out a cheer. Kyungsoo tried hard to keep smile off his face, but he failed. They really had worked well together.

Jongdae nudged his elbow. “Kyungsoo,” he said.

“What?”

“These eggs are fucking awful.”

end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and if you liked my writing, I'll be doing other things in the future. Got questions? I can answer them.
> 
> Also. My friend made me write an extra, so I'll edit and post that soon. On that note, if YOU want an extra, give me an idea, and if it fits, I'll write it.
> 
> Thanks again for reading!


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